


Luck Of The Sky

by Smoking_Gear



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: #more twins plz, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Angst, Eventual kissing, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Mischief, Mutual Pining, Strangers to Lovers, THEY ARE AGED UP, at least explicitly, god I love the twins, god I'm such a romantic, lots of pinning angst/fluff, mischevious twins, redempted parents, redemption arc, won't go much further than kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26934196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smoking_Gear/pseuds/Smoking_Gear
Summary: Amity is a member of the family in charge of the Largest Airship Cruise Line in the world. Luz is an Aspiring Engineer training under Eda, the Cruise Line’s best Engineer. What happens when the two of them meet on the Cruise Line’s finest airship? Read more to find out :)OR:A Steampunk AU where Luz is a dorky steampunk nerd and Amity is a disgruntled rich kid. Take your pick.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Emira Blight/Viney
Comments: 77
Kudos: 303





	1. Lift-Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz is an excited Engineer, ready to work on the largest airship of the C.C.L. Amity is the daughter of Alador Blight, the owner of C.C.L. What happens when the two girls meet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So…here's an Idea I had. I don’t know how long it’ll end up being, but I plan on seeing this through to the end. If there is a week or two or longer where nothing gets updated, I promise it’s just because I’m busy. I AM a college student after all. XD Hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Also, For this story, please assume that everything is steam-powered. It felt weird writing “Steam Car” rather than just “Car”, for example, because in a world where everything runs on steam, why would you call it a “Steam Car” rather than just a “Car”?
> 
> Also also, HUGE shout to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for helping Beta read the fic and come up with ideas for characters, plotlines, yadda yadda. If you haven't read any of her work, I STRONGLY recommend doing so.
> 
> (Update: Had some trouble with the formatting when I posted the second chapter. Everything is fine, nothing story-wise has changed, just some re-works on the summary and notes)

The Upper New York Landing Fields had caught a break from the poor weather just in time. In a few hours, the largest ship of the Coven Cruise Line, The Hexus, would be taking off for its inaugural flight to the London Royal Landing Fields. As per tradition, and according to many superstitions, an airship's maiden voyage is always a trip across the Atlantic from New York to London, or vice versa, depending on where the ship was built. The Hexus is rumored to be able to complete this crossing of the Atlantic in a mere 6 days. This is a whole day and a half faster than the C.C.L.’s top competitors. The company's executives and airship fans alike were buzzing with excitement at the prospect of such a fast Atlantic crossing. Once the inaugural flight is complete, the ship will then spend the rest of the year touring the globe, proving that she can fly for longer than her predecessors, with little to no maintenance needing to be done to keep her airworthy.

That is, except for Amity Blight, the daughter of Alador Blight, the founder of the Coven Cruise Line. To her, it’s just another one of her father’s dumb ships that she was being forced to ride on. And to top it off, her father had assigned her to be the family’s representative on board for the ENTIRE year-long journey. 

“Come-on Amity, cheer up! It’s not often you get an all-expenses-paid trip on the finest airship in the world!” Edric said cheerily from the seat next to her in the car. Amity was being forced to ride in the same car as her twin siblings as they made their way to the Landing Field where The Hexus was moored. Not even at the Landing Field yet, and she was already exhausted with the twin’s antics.

“Edric, If you make one more joke about how ‘lucky’ we are, I’m going to kill you,” Amity responds with a sigh.

Emira drapes an arm around Amity’s shoulders. “Well, we need to cheer you up somehow. The three of us get to spend a whole year together, more or less uninterrupted! Think of the fun we can have!”

Emira smirks mischievously, a look that is then matched by Edric. “And all the trouble we can cause for the crew.”

“Edric, you ARE part of the crew!” Amity nearly shouted after thinking about all the different ways they could cause trouble on an airship. With any luck, Lilith will be able to keep them in line as the ship’s captain. Even still, Edric and Emira do have quite the talent of undermining authority figures.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t cause mischief for the other members of the crew! Oh, I can’t wait to see Lilith’s face when her ‘most trusted crewmates’ are suddenly causing loads of problems.” Edric responded excitedly.

Emira leaned around Amity and looked at her twin with a similar glint in her eye. “And all the praise we’ll receive when we conveniently fix the problems before they become more serious.”

While the twins started rattling off about the different things they could do to the crew, Amity sighed and looked out the window of the car at The Hexus that was now beginning to appear in the distance. She may not be thrilled about the idea of being stuck on the airship for a whole year, she has to admit that it does look really impressive. After all, she will finally get to see more of the places that she always reads about in her books.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Luz! What’s the reading on the pressure valve for steam line 4?” Eda shouted from the Control Room of The Hexus’ Engine Room.

“One second Eda!” Luz called, finishing greasing a portion of one of the main engines before running down the catwalk to the gauge wall and quickly reading off the pressure for steam line 4. 

“It’s reading about 400!” Luz paused for a moment, tapping her chin. “Isn’t that a little high?”

“You bet it is!” Eda shouted up. “Now look around the rest of the gauges and tell me what you need to do to fix it. And be quick about it!”

Luz took a step back to really study the gauge wall, looking from the line 3 water main pressure to main steam line 1, before landing on the line 2 water intake gauge.

“The water intake for line 2 looks high! I’m gonna go slow it.” Luz said, running off to the waterline controls.

“That’s my girl!” Eda called from below.

While Luz cut the water flow for line 2 water intake, she shook her head, unable to believe how lucky she was. Not only is she being mentored by the best engineer of the C.C.L, but her first official post is on-board The Hexus! The largest, fastest airship in the world! She still can’t believe how lucky she is that Captain Lilith let Eda mentor her on their last ship, The Midnight Mint, or that Eda got her into the C.C.L. Engineer’s Academy for free! Luz’s dream of being Head Engineer was looking clearer and closer every day.

“Alright, Eda! Line 2 water intake has been cut, and steam line 4 is down to 297.” Luz called, leaning over the catwalk railing and spying Eda over by the speaking tube wall.

“Perfect! I’ll let Lilli know that the ship is ready for lift-off. You go watch the launch from the weather deck.” Eda called while leaning in to speak through one of the tubes on the wall in front of her.

Luz screeched, overcome by the excitement of actually being able to see the launch rather than stay hidden in the Engine Room. She quickly covered her mouth after realizing what she did, pulling the attention of the other Engineers finishing their own lift-off preparations, King and Viney, onto her and causing Luz to blush and make sure she regained her composure before calling down to Eda again.

“Are you sure Eda? You won’t need my help managing the lines as we bring her up to speed?”

“Nah. I’ve got Viney to help me with that! Ain’t that right Vin?” Eda asked the other Engineer.

“It’s not like I’ve got a choice,” Viney called from her spot over by the generator. “And please Eda, don’t call me Vin!” 

“Whatever you say, Vin.” Luz barely heard Eda call back to Viney, as she had already sprinted up the main stairs to the weather deck, eager to watch the launch of The Hexus.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The driver opened the door to the car, and Amity and her siblings stepped out to the applause of several dozen onlookers. 

Although many of the people gathered knew who the Blight siblings were, most were simply airship enthusiasts too enthralled by The Hexus to really understand who they were clapping for. Amity couldn’t have cared either way. While she wasn’t necessarily a celebrity, most people knew that they were the children of the infamous Alador Blight, founder of Coven Cruise Lines, and with that knowledge in the public’s mind, meant that Amity and her siblings, more or less, had to behave like celebrities, per the expectations of their father of course.

As there were expectations to adhere to, it's amazing the things she and her siblings did were even noticed by their parents. The door to her parent’s car had been opened a moment before theirs and Alador and Odalia Blight were already half-way to the boarding ramp, barely stopping to wave, let alone let pictures of them be taken.

Edric and Emira loved the attention, of course. They waved with large smiles, posed for cameras, and shook hands with people they knew their father would want them to shake hands with (for not everyone was quite important enough, or necessarily available, to join The Hexus in its inaugural flight).

Amity, on the other hand, could not be more detesting of the walk from the car to the airship, passing by all of these peoples. Of course, as the perfect daughter, she smiled when necessary, allowing the news reporters in favor with her father the best pictures for their tabloids, and all the other actions expected of her as the Blight Family’s youngest daughter. It was a pain. And she hated every second of it.

After finally getting past the area with all the reporters, Amity was now walking by the section with people more interested in the airship itself than any rich guy’s daughter. She allowed herself a moment to relax from the stresses of keeping her appearances, and really took in the scale of The Hexus. 

She really was an impressive airship.

While looking over the ship, she noticed a girl running along the railing of the weather deck. She looked to be wearing overalls that were extremely greasy and unkempt. The girl caught Amity’s attention because, after running full sprint from the back of the ship to the front, she gazed around excitedly, immediately starting to run to the back of the ship, looking around the back of the ship with the same excited energy as a kid let loose in a chocolate factory. Eventually, she got in the way of one of the handlers keeping the ship from lifting-off too soon. She was scolded by the man and settled on one spot along the railing to watch everything, out of the way of the workers.

When the girl finally stopped moving, Amity was able to get a better look at her. Even though she had just been yelled at by the handler, she was still looking around in excitement and wonder. She had short dark hair and wonderfully tanned skin, which was odd considering the stains on her clothes indicated she worked mostly below decks. She wore a leather vest over what must have at some point been a white shirt, for there’s no way those colors were what was intended. Her pants had all manner of pockets with what looked to be tools in each one. At a glance, Amity would have to guess that she was about her age, although she was pretty high up. It was weird to see such a bright and shining face on the body of someone covered in soot, grease, oil, and all other manner of dirt.

Eventually, the girl’s gaze wandered over to the crowd and her eyes seemed to stop and lock with Amity’s. They both stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Amity started to wonder, _“How can someone in such drab clothing look so breathtaking?”_

Amity’s thoughts stopped at this point. _“Wait. What? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!?”_

It wasn’t until a call from Emira came, that Amity finally broke out of her trance, tearing her eyes from the mystery girl. 

“ _Mittens_ … _Amity_ … Hey, Amity!” Emira called from next to where Amity was standing.

“Huh! What?” Amity turned towards her elder sister, slightly flustered.

“You were staring off into space up at the ship. Is everything okay?”

Amity’s mind screamed. _“No everything is not okay! I just thought some drab, greasy engineer was breathtaking!”_ However, she responded casually to her sister, “Just preparing myself for the year of boredom that awaits me.” with a hastily conjured sigh before turning and walking off to board the ship, leaving her sister behind.

Meanwhile, Edric had walked up next to Emira. He had seen most of the encounter. They both looked up to the ship to about where Amity had been looking and both noticed a girl in greasy overalls looking excitedly around the Landing Field. The twins shared a look with each other and smirked. Maybe this trip would be even more fun than they originally had planned.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_“I wonder who that was?”_ Luz thought to herself as she watched the beautiful girl with mint hair board with the last of the passengers. She was beautiful, wearing a black leather corset bustier over a purple dress that ended in a frilly skirt. The purple reminded Luz of an Amethyst and it complimented her green hair perfectly.

_“And why did watching her like that feel so relaxing?”_

As soon as she finished that thought, the crowd began to move away from the airship, indicating that the last of the passengers had boarded and that the ship was one more step closer to lift-off. 

Suddenly, her vision went dark as two hands appeared from behind and covered her eyes. “Guess who?” said a cheery voice.

“Willow!” Luz cried, turning around to hug her friend.

“How are you doing Luz? I wasn’t expecting to see you until after the launch.” Willow asked while returning the hug.

“I’m doing great! The Engine room is so big! Much bigger than on The Midnight Mint. And I didn’t expect to be up here either honestly, but we finished the pre-checks, got the pressures all regulated, and then Eda said I could head up here and watch the launch! I’m so excited!”

At this point, Luz was practically jumping up and down, and Willow had to giggle at her friend's antics. “Well, it certainly looks like you were just in the Engine Room. Let me guess, you ran straight up here after Eda said you could?”

Luz looked down at her clothes, soot-stained, grease marked, with various other pockets of filth all over. “Yeah, I guess I was just too excited. Speaking of clothes, I like your uniform!”

Willow was wearing her Steward’s uniform, a typical Maid’s outfit, however, just a little less frilly to accommodate the tighter spaces aboard the airship, with green, rather than white, accessories to accommodate the official C.C.L. signature colors of Brown and Green. The Green accessories complemented the green in Willow’s eyes rather well, and her headpiece was almost invisible when holding her dark hair out of her face.

“Thanks, Luz,” Willow said while blushing slightly. Not many people cared to compliment her and she still wasn't used to having a friend like Luz who did it so often. “But you should see Gus’ uniform! I’ve never seen so much brown.” Willow said with another giggle.

“Really?” Luz asks puzzled, “But I thought the guys all had to wear brown suits?” 

“Oh, they do!” Willow said affirmably, “but it isn’t quite the brown you think it is. Come on, I’ll show you! He’s in charge of the finishing touches for the stage where Alador Blight is going to be giving his big speech.” Willow finished as she grabbed Luz’s hand, pulling her over to where the speech was going to be given.

As they approached the stage, it wasn’t very hard for them to spot Gus over the heads of the crowd that had begun to gather in preparation for the speech. 

Boy, Willow was right.

The suit was a very fine make, as was expected from the Stewardship of a C.C.L. airship, however, the brown was so OBVIOUSLY brown, it looked more like a hue of someone’s hair than the color of a suit. With the color of the suit and Gus’ tanned skin, you almost couldn’t tell where the suit ended and where Gus began! Luz didn’t want to laugh at her friend, but he did look a little silly.

“Oh shoot!” Willow muttered from next to Luz, checking the pocket watch given to her by the Stewardship. “I guess we’ll have to wait for after the speech to say hi to Gus. The speech is about to start.”

As if on cue, the crowd in front of the stage began to quiet down as Captain Lilith, Alador Blight, and what Luz assumed was his family and several other Cruise Line Executives took the stage. Luz was trying to see how many of the Executives she could remember after her year in the Academy when she spotted the girl she had seen walking through the crowd just a minute ago.

_“Wow, she’s even prettier up close.”_ Luz thought to herself as she began to give her undivided attention to the mint haired stranger.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_“I can’t believe I have to be up here for this. It’s not like I’m going to be saying anything!”_ Amity thought dejectedly as she made her way, obediently, onto the stage with the rest of her family and the other top Executives of her father’s company.

Every inaugural flight of a new ship, her father has deemed it necessary that the whole family, along with Executives from the company, partake in the flight. To kick everything off, her father always gave a long eloquent speech about the ship, the company, the crew, the passengers, and any other number of topics her father has deemed necessary to bring up. It all ended when he said, “Captain, the ship is yours!” To this, the Captain usually said something like “Very good sir,” then gave the order for the ship to lift-off.

Just one more pleasure of being the daughter of Alador Blight.

Almost the second the entourage have reached their positions on the stage, Alador began his speech.

“Today is a new day for the Coven Cruise Lines!” Alador started.

_“Wow, dad, keeping it classic huh?”_ Amity thought with a mental huff.

“Today, The Hexus embarks on her inaugural flight towards the Royal Landing Fields in London.”

_“Not again with the ‘Today’ speech.”_

“Today, we prove to the world once more why the Coven Cruise Lines is the best there is.”

_“Yup, he’s come up with another ‘Today’ speech.”_

Before her father could say “Today” one more time, Amity tuned him out and began to focus on the people in the crowd in front of her. Most of them are your typical Inaugural flight passengers. You have your group of shareholders here, other company executives there, and at the back are the members of the public that had to pay quite the high price to get a spot on The Hexus for this first flight. Flanking the whole crowd along both sides is the Stewards, ready to serve anyone on board at the drop of a-

_“Wait a minute, wasn’t that…?”_ Amity thought, midway through her scanning of the people at the back of the crowd. She quickly looked back over the people her eyes had just passed over, spotting them at the very back next to one of the female Stewards.

_“It’s her.”_

Amity had spotted the mystery girl that she had been staring at while walking from her car to the boarding ramp. 

_“Her eyes are so..., Golden.”_

In the initial shock of having spotted the mystery girl, Amity failed to notice that the reason she was able to see her eyes in the first place, was because the girl had been staring at her since before the speech had even started. 

To the two girls, the rest of the world fell away as they stared at each other. Their eyes each expressing their respective amazement of the other. One pair reminded the other of an old bookshelf; safe, inviting, and bursting to the surface with knowledge of things eager to be shared. The second pair, reminding the other of a hard-shelled caramel candy; tough on the outside, but with a sweet gooey center, one that not many people have probably enjoyed.

Time passed in a blur, and before either of them knew it, Alador Blight had reached the end of his speech.

“Captain, the ship is yours!” he announced in a strong, proud voice.

“Very good sir,” Captain Lilith responded, turning to a makeshift speaking tube next to her. 

“First Officer Kikimora, we are clear for Lift-Off!”

With the order given, the hiss of steam and lifting gas could be heard as the airbags are filled and the engines are engaged. The rope handlers cast off, severing the ship’s last physical tie to the Earth. In moments, The Hexus was in the air, turning towards the Atlantic, beginning its inaugural flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lastly, for anyone interested, I have also attached a link to a [Tumblr](http://smoking-gear-the-author.tumblr.com/post/631613979141324800/hey-all-starting-a-fanfic-for-the-owl-house) post that I made where you can see some basic pictures that I drew of The Hexus. This will hopefully give you a little better idea of what the airship looks like. If enough people ask, I can include the quick list of schematics I wrote up for myself so that way I don’t just keep making up crazy statistics for the ship that don’t fit with what I’ve already talked about. Hope to see you around for the next chapter! :D


	2. Look Out Below!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity is bored. Luz is clumsy. Things go down (literally).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the comments, hits, and Kudos! Posting the first chapter inspired me to get a lot done over the weekend. More soon to come!

The Atlantic Ocean sprawled out beyond the horizon below The Hexus as she flew smoothly towards her destination. The skies were clear and the day was calm. And to top it all off:

Amity was bored.

Amity was bored, and they were only three days into their journey.

Three days, into their YEAR LONG journey. 

_“God, how am I supposed to survive this?”_ Amity thought to herself as she looked out the window next to her at the sprawling expanse of the Ocean below. In an attempt to curb her growing boredom, Amity decided to sit with Boscha and Skara in the lounge found on the fourth deck. They were both the daughters of two of her father’s business partners, and while they weren’t required to stay with The Hexus for its year-long journey, they most likely would anyway since they are in love with the pampered life.

Amity found them utterly insufferable. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that she was expected to, Amity would never hang out with them. So while it isn’t her first choice of thing to do, it was better than trying to read in the small library with the twins constantly bothering her. 

If Amity was bored, it’s obvious that the twins were even more so. They wouldn’t dare try one of their more extreme shenanigans while their parents, especially their father, is onboard, so they had resorted to bothering Amity whenever they had free time from their crew duties serving as Helmsman.

“Oh, don’t get me started on the Stewards,” Boscha said from the chair across from Amity. 

“My room and the one across from mine are both being served by the same Steward and she’s so obnoxious! I swear, she talked back to me this morning,” Boshca said, crossing her arms.

“What! No,” Skara said looking shocked.

“It’s true! I had asked her to help me draw my bath for the day and she told me to do it myself. Can you believe the nerve of her?”

_“Except you probably didn’t ‘ask’ her anything and she was most likely busy with something else, so she couldn’t even if she wanted to.”_ Amity thought to herself.

“My my,” Skara responded shaking her head, “you should have called the Head Steward.”

“Oh believe me Skara, if it wasn’t for the fact I was still in my nightgown, I most certainly would have.” 

_“Yes, and gotten the poor girl in trouble simply because you can’t be bothered to show some kindness to anyone, ever.”_

As Boscha finished what she was saying, Willow approached the three and looked to Boscha as if to address her.

“Well speak of the devil, and they shall appear,” Boscha said in an obviously hostile tone. If it wasn’t for the fact that Amity had spent her entire life wearing masks to please those around her, she almost wouldn’t have noticed the moment when Willow’s own mask disappeared.

“Your lunch has been prepared for you in your cabin my lady,” Willow said professionally while bowing her head to Boscha.

“Excellent. Let’s hope you haven’t messed this up too, yes?” Boscha moved to stand and head back to her cabin for Lunch. “Would either of you care to join me?” Boscha asked as she looked between Skara and Amity.

“Oh, that would be lovely!” Skara said almost sarcastically, as she and Boscha both knew they would simply take the opportunity to trash talk Willow more, hopefully letting the poor Steward hear more of the conversation this time.

As soon as Skara finished, Amity noticed that Captain Lilith had entered the Lounge and was making her way to the rear of the ship.

_“I wonder if she’s busy at the moment. Even if she’s not, needing to talk to her will be a convenient excuse to get out of this sudden lunch party.”_ Amity thought as the Captain began to pass their location.

“While I appreciate the offer, I actually have something to discuss with Captain Lilith on behalf of the family. Perhaps another time?” Amity said as she moved to leave the group.

“Of course,” Skara and Boscha both said in near-perfect unison, both used to have to talk with people on behalf of their families.

Having escaped the impromptu lunch party, Amity made her way to catch up with Captain Lilith.

“Excuse me! Captain Lilith!” Amity called as they reached the passageway just outside of the lounge.

Lilith turned to address who was calling her. “Ah, young Ms. Blight. What can I do for you today?”

“Uhm,” Amity stumbled as she completely forgot she doesn’t actually need to talk with the Captain. “I was, um, wondering if I, um could get a tour of the ship? I’ve seen most of the passenger spaces of course, but I was wondering if perhaps I could tour the portions most people don’t typically get to see?”

Amity knew this lie might not go over well. Her father was the owner of the ship. Of course, she already knew most things about the airship and some of the things she knew she wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some of the crew didn’t even know.

Lilith raised an eyebrow questioningly at Amity’s question, as she knew herself that Amity knew more about the ship than some of her crew. However, it’s not like she was that busy and she certainly didn’t want to deny the request of her boss’ daughter. 

“Of course Ms. Blight. As it is the closer portion of the ship, shall we tour the Engine Room first?” Lilith asked the youngest Blight while gesturing towards the rear of the ship.

“That would be wonderful!” Amity responded, grateful that the Captain had accepted the obvious lie.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“There, how does that look Viney?” Luz asked the Engineer next to her on one of the first-floor catwalks above the Engine Control Room.

“With any luck, that should do the trick!” Viney responded affirmatively.

Luz and Viney had been tasked with fixing the centrifugal governor for one of the Main Engines. The governor had been making a banging noise for a good hour before anyone was able to figure out where the noise was coming from. Eda had such a bad headache from the noise that she told whoever was closest to slow the engine and “fix the damned thing before my head explodes.” Luz and Viney happened to be the two closest at the time, and so they set about their task with earnest.

Now that the job was done, they had to get confirmation from King—Eda’s second in command in the Engine Room—in order for them to safely bring the engine back up to speed.

“You wait here while I go find King. Start getting everything greased up again, and make sure the governor doesn’t come loose again. Otherwise, we’ll be scolded by King if he thinks we came to get him before the job was finished.” Viney ordered as she stood to go find King.

“Yes ma’am!” Luz said with her characteristic two-fingered salute. She then grabbed a nearby grease can and began to set about greasing up the parts of the engine the two had just finished working on.

It wasn’t long after she finished greasing up the engine that Luz heard some voices drifting up from the Control Room. It sounded like Captain Lilith, though she couldn’t be sure.

As she moved towards the railing along the edge of the catwalk, Luz began to pick up the conversation and confirmed that it was in fact Captain Lilith talking.

“...these two engines that each help to run the main propellor out the back of the ship,” Lilith said to the person next to her as she gestured around the Engine room.

“Wow,” said another voice, “although why is one running slower than the other? Shouldn’t they be running at the same speed?”

It took Luz a moment to spot who the voice was coming from, but once she did she froze.

It’s the girl from the stage. _“What was her name again? Didn’t Willow say that she was one of the daughters of Alador Blight? Oh, that’s right!”_ Luz shouted in her mind once she remembered the name of the girl.

“ _Amity Blight.”_

Luz missed Lilith’s response to the question. She was watching Amity at this point, although she knew the answer already, and wasn’t concerned about what she said.

After responding to Amity’s question, Captain Lilith led Amity over towards one of the control panels that were under the catwalk Luz was standing on. 

While trying to keep her eyes on Amity, Luz started leaning more and more over the edge of the catwalk, eventually slipping and falling backwards with a loud metallic thud. However, as she fell, she ended up kicking one of the wrenches that she and Viney had been using to fix the governor over the side of the catwalk. She quickly crawled to the edge of the catwalk and shouted;

“LOOK OUT BELOW!”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And here we have the upper floors of the Engine Room, featuring the Engine Control Room and these two engines that each help to run the main propellor out the back of the ship,” Lilith said while gesturing to the large expanse that makes up the Engine Room.

“Wow,” Amity said with genuine astonishment. While she did know more or less what the Engine room consisted of, she had yet to see the scale of the room in person.

“Although why is one running slower than the other? Shouldn’t they be running at the same speed?” This, surprisingly, was a genuine question she had for the Captain. Where her father had shared most of the design of The Hexus with her and her siblings, the main engines had been kept a secret for only the builders, Engineers, and upper Executives to know for fear of the design being leaked to their competitors. Not that any of the Blight siblings were dumb enough to leak such valuable information. They may not always like their father and the C.C.L., but they were their father’s children.

“I can’t explain the entire process, however, each engine runs a portion of a gear train that turns the main propellor. The way the gear train was designed allows for the engines to each function at different speeds while still contributing to the effort of turning the propeller. If required, we could run the ship on just one engine while the other is taken down for maintenance.” Lilith answered matter-of-factly.

“Now, if you’ll follow me this way, we can see one of the gauge walls indicating different pressures of the various pipelines that run throughout the room,” Lilith said while indicating a direction and leading the way.

As Amity made her way to follow Lilith over to one of the many gauge walls of the Engine Room, a call came from above.

“LOOK OUT BELOW!”

Amity looked up just in time to see what appeared to be a wrench falling from one of the catwalks above them and the mystery girl’s head peeking over the side of a catwalk before feeling something hard hit her on the head.

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for beta reading!


	3. A Little (S)Woozy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity was hit on the head, now she has to recover. Although, why are her cheeks so red?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s go chapter 3! Chapter 4 should be up today too if all goes to plan. :D
> 
> Is that an overall chapter count I spy? I have planned out to chapter 11 of the fic so at the very least expect that. However, I have much more to plan so expect that number to go up!

Amity could hear voices in the darkness of her mind.

_“Oh my God! Captain, is she alright?”_ Luz asked frantically as she ran up to Lilith and the unconscious Amity.

_“I’m not sure. That wrench knocked her out though,”_ Lilith said while peering over Amity’s wound and checking her eyes.

_“I’ll go get the doctor,”_ Luz said as she began to make her way out of the Engine Room.

_“No!”_ Lilith called as she began to stand. _“Carry her to the infirmary. I need to go inform her parents about what happened. The doctor is going to need to take her there anyway, so we might as well save some time.”_

_“Alright.”_ Luz said with resolve as she moves over to Amity, mumbling _“and scoop!”_ to herself as she picked Amity up and made their way to the infirmary.

Amity’s mind was blank for a while. Eventually, she heard shouting, but it was all muffled and it was hard for her to concentrate on it.

_“Why was my daughter in the Engine Room to begin with!?”_ Alador Blight shouted furiously in the infirmary after Captain Lilith finished explaining the situation. 

_“She had requested a tour of the ship sir. As I did not have any immediate duties to attend to, I decided to fulfill said request."_ Lilith said calmly in a hushed voice as she knew if Amity woke up at that moment an elevated conversation would cause the girl quite a lot of pain.

_“Regardless, there was no need for her to be walking around the Engine Room! Especially when she,”_ Alador gestured to Luz, _“is dropping wrenches off of catwalks!”_

_“But sir it was an accident! I didn’t mean to drop anything!”_ Luz protested as Alador accused her of purposely dropping the wrench onto Amity’s head.

_“Watch it, young lady,”_ Alador said pointing a finger at Luz _, “I have half a mind to fire you and kick you off this ship the second we land in London.”_

While Luz was obviously about to say something else, most likely making Alador go through with his threat to fire her, Lilith stepped in between the two.

_“Sir, your daughter was injured due to my negligence. You are right, there was no reason for me to take Amity into the Engine Room with me. We could have simply stood at the entrance while I talked about the room. You have my deepest apologies.”_ Lilith finished with a slight bow.

Alador sighed, obviously considering what he will do next. _“Very well Captain. As I need you to keep this ship on schedule, I will accept your apology and drop the issue. However, she,”_ he pointed angrily to Luz, _“will face a punishment before we land in London for her negligence. I don’t care what it is, but she will be punished. Do you understand me?”_

Lilith nodded deeply to the point where it was almost a bow. _“Yes, I do sir. It will be done.”_

_“Good. Now leave me be with my daughter.”_ Alador said moving his way to Amity’s bed.

Lilith, knowing better, simply nodded and grabbed Luz by the arm, pulling them out of the infirmary before Luz could get herself into more trouble.

Amity barely caught the end of the conversation before her head hurt so much that she had to give in to exhaustion and sleep for a time.

The next time Amity heard something, it was the quiet sound of the infirmary door opening. She heard someone shuffling their feet on the metal deck before the stranger started to speak to her. While her exhaustion was keeping her from being able to completely focus on who was speaking, it sounded strangely familiar.

_“I can’t believe I let this happen. I’m such a clutz,”_ Luz said while kicking her toe into the deck. _“I’m so sorry that I let this happen, Amity. I promise I’ll make it up to you when you wake up.”_

While the girl didn’t say anything else, Amity eventually heard her leave before succumbing once more to her exhaustion.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity awoke to the blinding lights of the infirmary. When she first tried to open her eyes, her head spun and quickly shut them again, wincing at the brightness which flared up the headache she had.

“Mittens, you’re awake!” a voice said from next to her.

It took Amity a moment to adjust her eyes to the light before turning and seeing that it was Emira sitting on a chair next to her bed.

“Ugh, my head really hurts,” Amity said while cradling her head with a hand.

Emira leaned over the bed offering Amity a cup of water. “I bet it does. You got hit by that wrench pretty bad.”

That sounded right to Amity. Although, she couldn't place exactly why she was hit on the head in the first place.

“I got what? When did that happen?” Amity asked, taking the offered cup and sipping gently.

“Yesterday you were taking a tour of the ship with Captain Lilith and a wrench fell off of a catwalk above you, hitting you on the head,” Emira answered, leaning back into her chair.

_“As so those weren’t dreams,”_ Amity thought to herself. _“I must have kept drifting in and out of consciousness.”_

“The apprentice that dropped it brought you here to the infirmary while Captain Lilith came to find our father. Edric and I were with him so we came too to check on you ourselves. We both came here together today to see if you would wake up, but he had to leave a couple of minutes ago for his shift as Helmsman.” Emira continued the story of the previous day’s events.

“My, was father angry. Although I was impressed. The apprentice actually stood up for herself when he accused her of dropping the wrench on your head on purpose. He even threatened to fire her.”

_“Of course he would go straight to threats. God forbid he understand what the word accident me—”_

“Wait a minute, you said she stood up for herself?” Amity asked credulously.

“I know, right! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone of such low standing, in the company or otherwise, stand up to him like that,” Emira said in equal astonishment. “Captain Lilith saved the day though and kept her punishment down to something aboard ship.”

Wow.

If Amity wasn’t interested in the mystery girl already, the fact she had stood up to her father did the trick. The only people she knew who would do that on occasion were herself and the twins. To hear that somebody outside of the family stood up to their father on their own was incredible.

“Did you happen to learn the name of the apprentice?” Amity asked out of genuine curiosity.

Emira however, knew there was a little more to the situation. “Oh? Trying to find your prince charming for another midnight rendezvous?” She countered with a mischievous smirk.

Amity’s cheeks began to redden at the suggestion. “What? No! What are you even talking about?”

Emira shrugged nonchalantly, “I don’t know. All I’m saying is I saw Luz Noceda come to give you a visit in the middle of the night.”

_“So her name is Luz.”_

_“Wait, did Emira just say she visited me? So it_ was _her voice that I heard last night!”_

Amity’s cheeks were definitely turning red now. “Well even if what you’re saying is true, I simply would like to apologize to her for father’s actions. I’m sure it was just an accident and no harm was meant.”

Emira raised an eyebrow at Amity’s redness. “Mhm. Well, I’ll let you get some rest and go inform Father that you’re awake and feeling better. You gotta be feeling your best for your next secret rendezvous.” Emira winked, standing to leave the infirmary.

While Amity didn’t have a witty comeback for her sister’s teasing, her cheeks most definitely betrayed her by darkening another shade of red.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I can’t believe the Captain gave you a punishment over something you did on accident! It’s not like you meant to drop that wrench!” Gus said from atop the box he was sitting on.

“Yeah, and it’s not like they don’t deserve it. All those rich kids are such jerks!” Willow said while passing another bucket over to Luz. “I overheard Boscha talking about how I ‘talked back’ to her the other day just because I was too busy to help her draw up her bath.”

Gus and Willow had come down to the sixth deck with Luz during their break to keep her company while she carried out her punishment. Captain Lilith had made her clean up the storage room where a box of wine had fallen over and spilled its contents everywhere. Luz was just about finished as Willow passed her the last bucket she needed to use to mop up the rest of the spilled wine. 

“I don’t know. I mean, they can’t all be that bad right?” Luz questioned as she wrung out the mop in her hand. “Look at Amity. She was in the Engine Room getting a tour from the Captain. Not even her twin siblings have bothered to take a tour of the Engine Room, and they fly the ship!”

_“Wait, why am I so defensive of Amity’s reputation?”_

“Well, all I know is she hangs out with both Boscha and Skara, and so far they all seem to despise us Stewards for whatever reason,” Willow said as she picked up one of the buckets Luz filled and dumped the contents in a barrel.

“It’s not like we serve them at the drop of a hat or anything,” Willow muttered as she pulled out her pocket watch.

“Looks like our breaks are about to be over,” Gus said, he too looking at his pocket watch. “Sorry, we couldn’t keep you company longer Luz.”

“Don’t worry about it, I appreciate you guys coming down here though. And besides, I’m almost done. After this bucket, I should be good to go!” Luz said with a smile.

“Alright. Well, we’ll see you after our shifts. Sounds good?” Willow asked as she and Gus made their way to the door.

“Definitely,” Luz said, waving a quick goodbye to her friends.

After Willow and Gus left, Luz finished her cleaning job in no time. Captain Lilith instructed her that once she finished her task, the rest of her punishment would be to take the day off and stay away from the Engine Room, cause she knew that was Liz’s favorite spot on the whole airship. 

With nothing else to do, she decided that lunch in the crew’s mess hall would be a good place to start the rest of her day’s activities.

As Luz was making her way to the mess hall, she rounded a corner and ran straight into someone, knocking them both onto the ground.

“Oh my goodness I’m so sorry!” Luz said frantically while she tried to help whoever she just knocked down up to their feet. “I totally wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s fine, I wasn’t exactly paying attention eith-”

Their eyes met as Luz finished helping Amity up to her feet.

For a moment they both stood there, gazing intently into the other’s eyes. The world around them beginning to fade away as they once more enter into a sort of trance

In the same moment, they both thought to themselves;

_“Wow.”_

Amity was the first to snap back to reality as she registered a crewman passing them by, annoyed that they were taking up most of the passageway.

“So, um, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced yet. I’m Amity Blight.” She bowed slightly with a pink hue rising to her cheeks as she realized the two had been staring at each other in silence.

“Oh! Yeah, my name is Luz Noceda.” Luz said as she scratched the back of her head, a pink hue rising to her cheeks as well.

They both stood there for an awkward moment before beginning to speak at the same time.

“I wanted to apolo-”

“I’m sorry abo-”

They both stopped talking.

“Please, you go fi-”

“Sorry, you go ahe-”

They both stopped again although almost immediately after they stopped, Amity took the lead in the conversation.

“Please, you go first,” she said, gesturing to Luz.

“Sure,” Luz said, slightly awkwardly “I wanted to apologize for, you know, dropping the wrench on your head. I can be such a klutz sometimes.” Luz’s blush deepened at her embarrassment.

“Oh no, it’s alright. Accidents happen.” Amity rushed to assure her. “ I actually wanted to see you to apologize for my father’s behavior. He doesn’t always remember what the word ‘accident’ means.”

“That’s alright, I mean I did make a mistake and you could have been hurt really badly,” Luz said with her eyes downtrodden.

“That’s no excuse!” Amity said, rather loudly considering their proximity, making Luz look up at her with wide eyes.

“Not getting hurt as bad as I could have been is no excuse for threatening to fire you over an accident! It’s ridiculous, and I’m sorry you had to defend yourself against him.” Amity said, this time with her eyes cast downwards.

They both stood there a moment, an air of awkwardness settling over the two of them.

Luz’s mind raced for something she could do to break the silence.

_“I want to spend more time with her,”_ Luz thought desperately.

When she came up with an idea to keep them together for a little longer, she could hear her heart pounding in her ears as her blush deepened and she posed the suggestion.

“Well, how about I finish that tour you were on with the Captain?” Luz offered.

Amity looked up as her heart beat faster in her chest, her blush deepening as well. “I um, that would, uh,’ she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear before giving a gentle cough, attempting to cover up her stutter.

She thinks to herself _“Oh my God I’m stuttering? Seriously Amity??”_ and amid her scrambling thoughts over why she would possibly be stuttering again—a tick she got rid of before she turned 10—one thought appeared on the surface of her mind.

_“I want to spend more time with her,”_ her mind shouted.

Channeling her thoughts’ desires, Amity collected herself. “That would be lovely,” she replied, only deepening the two girls’ blush as their minds each scream simultaneously.

_“I get to spend more time with her!”_

“Great!” Luz said excitedly with a little bounce. “This time, however, maybe we should stay away from the Engine Room?” she finished with a slight chuckle.

“Sounds like a plan,” Amity said, following Luz as she began their tour of the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for beta reading!


	4. The Tour of Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tour of the ship ensures. A tour of a ship with tight passageways and hidden spaces. A tour of a ship where limbs will inevitably brush against each other. A tour where blushing and pinning ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry, this chapter took a bit to get out, but my beta reader and I got a little busy. In the meantime, I have now planned up to chapter 15 of the fic (Woop Woop!) with more to come. If this chapter seems a little off from the previous four, it is because I have a new beta reader! @amityadmirer has gotten busy in life and has some stuff they’re dealing with and at their request, I went on the search for a new beta. I found the wonderful @AnimeWolf38 and they are doing a great job so far! This chapter served as a test to figure out how we work together so if anything feels off it should be gone by the next chapter. Can’t wait to get the next chapter out, and to keep seeing this story grow!
> 
> (Also: We've passed 100 Kudos and we're almost at 1000 hits!! Thank you so much, everyone! :D)

Luz decided that to start their tour, they should head to the second big-ticket location on The Hexus. The first big-ticket location being the Engine Room of course, and although they decided that it would be best to avoid the room with Amity’s recent injury, Luz wasn’t allowed in for the rest of the day anyway. 

As the two girls made their way towards the Bridge, any hopes of their blushes fading quickly vanished.

Due to the narrowness of several passageways, the girls’ shoulders and hands continued to brush against each other. While each knew the simple solution was for Luz to pull ahead and Amity to fall behind Luz so they could walk front to back, neither made a move to end the constant brushing of limbs, resulting in a tension that wasn’t quite awkward, but neither could place what it was.

Despite the strange tension, Luz stopped on occasion to show Amity features on the ship that they passed, ensuring that while the real goal of the tour was simply to spend time with Amity, the appearance of the genuine desire to give her a tour of the ship was upheld.

“And here we have the Bridge!” Luz announced as the two reached a large door at the end of the passageway.

Luz made a move to begin opening the door so they could go in and see the bridge, however she stopped short before she actually got a hand on the handle.

“What’s wrong?” Amity asked, puzzled by Luz’s reluctance to open the door.

“Well, it’s just that,” Luz scratched the back of her head nervously, “I’m not sure if Captain Lilith is on duty right now, and I’m not sure how much she’d approve of you having another tour of the ship considering the whole... you know,” Luz finished vaguely as she’s sure Amity can guess what she’s getting at.

“There’s no need to worry about that, Luz!” a voice called from an open door a step or two back down the passageway.

A moment later, a tall older man wearing big square classes emerged from the open door.

“Oh, Mr. Porter! I didn’t know you were on duty,” Luz said as she heads over toward the man with Amity following her.

Mr. Porter laughed. “Luz, do you ever know when someone is on duty or not?”

Luz chuckled with embarrassment. “Well, I know that Gus and Willow are on duty right now!”

“Glad to know you guys are still finding time to hang out with each other,” Mr. Porter said as he looked over at Amity. “What brings you two to the bridge?”

Luz’s eyes widened, “Oh that’s right!” She turned to face Amity, “Amity, this is Mr. Porter. He’s The Hexus’ head Navigator and Radioman, as well as my friend Gus’ dad!”

“A pleasure to officially meet you, Ms. Blight. I’m Perry Porter, at your service,” he said bowing slightly towards his boss’s youngest daughter.

“A pleasure to meet you as well Mr. Porter,” Amity said while returning the bow.

“Well I thank you for introducing us, Luz, but you didn’t quite answer my question,” Mr. Porter said, looking back over to Luz.

“Oops! My bad,” Luz said, scratching the back of her head once again. “I’m finishing the tour that Captain Lilith was giving Amity the other day. Although she got hurt that day and I’m not really sure if the Captain would approve of me bringing her onto the bridge…”

Mr. Porter rubbed his chin. “Well as I said before, Captain Lilith isn’t on duty right now. I’m actually the duty officer at the moment. So how about we head in and if the Captain asks, I can tell her you were asking questions about the Navigator’s Station. Sounds good?”

“That would be great! Thank you so much!” Luz said, bouncing slightly, excited now that she’s going to get to show Amity the bridge.

In Luz’s excitement, she failed to notice Amity giving her a loving glance as she thought to herself;

_ “God, her excited bouncing is so cute!” _

As Mr. Porter opened the door for the two girls, and Luz grabbed Amity’s hand in haste, causing Amity’s blush to deepen once more, and pulled Amity after her into the Bridge. Amity only had a chance to glance around quickly before being pulled over to the Navigator’s Station.

After a moment, Luz looked at their hands and realized what she had done.

_ “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I just grabbed her hand like that! I hope she doesn’t mind...” _

As Luz had a mild panic over what she had just done with Amity’s hand, Mr. Porter began an explanation of his station and some of the other stations of the Bridge.

At first, Amity attempted to participate in the conversation, however, that didn’t last long. Luz holds rapt attention, learning some things about the bridge that she didn’t actually know, while Amity is too busy glancing at Luz and their still joined hands to understand anything that Mr. Porter was saying.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edric was bored out of his mind.

This was his third duty shift as Helmsman of The Hexus, and while the first duty had been kind of exciting as they encountered some winds, the more recent shifts had involved simply standing there behind the Ship’s Wheel.

And to top it all off, Edric and Emira hadn’t been able to pull off even one of their crazy schemes cause their parents were _still_ on board! Not that they really had a chance to _leave_ the ship after they took off from New York of course.

Edric was about to settle in for another mid-duty-shift nap when he heard one of the Bridge’s access doors open behind him. He shot up from his position leaning on the wheel, standing straight and tall with his hands holding firm to the Ship’s Wheel. He may be tired and bored, but he’d be damned -literally- if Captain Lilith caught him slacking off during his shift.

It wasn’t until he heard the voice of Mr. Porter, the ship’s Navigator and Radioman, that he relaxed his stance. Mr. Porter was his favorite duty officer, as so long as the ship wasn’t in danger, he let you do more or less what you pleased while on duty. However, the one condition was you couldn’t do anything that would cause you to jeopardize the ship’s safety in the event you were needed back on your post ASAP.

Edric started to tune into the conversation Mr. Porter was having, as it sounded like he brought some people into the Bridge with him.

“Here is where my station is when I have to be present on the bridge. Most of my time on duty is actually spent in the Chart and Radio rooms where we just came from,” Edric heard Mr. Porter state matter-of-factly.

“Why do you work in both places? Wouldn’t it be easier to just have one station?” a member of Mr. Porter’s entourage asked.

_ “Wait a minute, was that Mittens?” _

After he heard what sounded like Amity’s voice, Edric turned his head to try and get a glance at who was with Mr. Porter.

_ “It is Mittens. Wait, isn’t that Luz with her?” _

Edric spent what time he could looking at the two to decide if it really was Luz over there with Amity listening to Mr. Porter before he looked back out the large Bridge window. Luz had been one of the first crewmen to welcome Edric and Emira to the team when they were being introduced to their station. He liked the energetic engineer, as she always seemed to be excited.

Edric spent more time looking between Amity and Luz than he meant to because of one little detail.

_ “Oh my God. They’re holding hands!” _ Edric’s mind screamed in excitement.  _ “I’ve gotta tell Em about this!” _

Edric waited for a moment before looking back at the pair once more.

_ “She’s blushing! Mittens is  _ actually _ blushing!” _

Edric didn’t risk turning around to look at them again after that, but he could not stop thinking about how their hands were together, and how, while Amity’s blush was a little more obvious, the two girls were blushing while they listened to Mr. Porter.

Eventually, Mr. Porter led the two girls back to the Bridge Access door that they came through, closing it behind the trio as they left.

Edric could not get what he had seen out of his mind, nor the thought that kept running through his head like a mantra.

_ “I’ve gotta tell Em about this!” _

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the trio made their way out of the Bridge, Amity and Luz’s hands eventually broke apart, and Amity found she missed the connection immeasurably.

_ “Why am I acting like this?” _ she kept thinking to herself as they bid farewell to Mr. Porter.

“Alright. Next, let’s head up to the Weather Deck and check out the Lifting Gas System!” Luz said as she led the way down the passageway towards the nearest staircase.

This time, as they walked down the hall, Amity opted to walk behind Luz. She didn’t think her heart could handle another passageway’s worth of constant hand and shoulder brushing.

When they reached the weather deck, there was a calm ocean breeze drifting over the deck, as the ship was more or less riding the current winds towards their destination. Amity found it to be rather pleasant after having spent almost all her time below decks. Despite the windows the stewards regularly opened and the duct system carrying air throughout the ship, everyone crammed into such tight quarters still led to a lot of stuffy areas. Not to mention the older gentlemen on the ship taking regular visits to the Smoking Room.

As Amity closed her eyes to enjoy the breeze, Luz took liberty watching her enjoy the breeze. As she let the breeze wash over her, Amity seemed to be at peace, letting some tension wash from her form. Luz watched as the tension left Amity, and she realized that she wanted to see her relax even more, and she was determined to achieve this new goal.

After basking in the breeze for a moment, Amity looked back to Luz, startling Luz out of her enjoyment of watching her.

“So, which part of the LGS do you want to show me first?” Amity asked curiously.

“Uh… oh, right!” Luz stuttered, pulling herself together. “Follow me,” she continued, heading over to one of the main columns that ran from the weather deck up to the catwalks spanning the space between the two balloons keeping the Hexus aloft.

“There are three of these main columns up here on the weather deck. The forward and rear ones pump lifting gas to and from the balloons. The middle one holds the speaking tubes that…”

As Luz went off on her tangent about the LGS, a system Amity already knew about, she found herself staring at Luz. She took in the way Luz’s eyes sparkled when she talked about something she’s interested in. Amity found that while Luz’s voice was energetic and almost frantic, it was soothing to her. She could probably listen to Luz’s voice for hours and never grow tired of it.

“And that’s how we keep the ship afloat! Pretty cool huh?” Luz said smugly as she finished her explanation.

Amity smirked at her. “Oh yes, very impressive. I’m  _ sure  _ no one else could possibly handle keeping the ship afloat as well as you and the rest of the crew could,” she responded sarcastically.

Luz, in return, got right up into Amity’s space and said, “And don’t you forget it,” while she booped her on the nose. They both froze, turning away quickly with matching blushes, thinking the same thing: 

_ “Oh my God. Did that really just happen!?” _

After avoiding the other’s eyes as they each let their blushes die down, Luz blinked as the setting sun hit her eyes, blinding her, and reminding her of the last thing she wanted to show Amity.

“Oh! Quick, we have to get back below deck. There’s one final thing I want to show you,” Luz said, grabbing Amity’s wrist, too embarrassed from before to hold her hand, and dragged her along towards the nearest staircase leading back below deck.

Amity was barely able to keep up as Luz ran towards her destination. “Luz, wait, can’t we slow down a bit?” she asked, nearly tripping over the uneven plating on the deck’s floor.

Luz slowed slightly but kept the two of them running. “Sorry, but we have to get there before the sun sets,” she called from over her shoulder.

Amity couldn’t entirely argue with that reasoning, so she merely did her best to keep her feet under her and avoid tripping and slamming onto the deck plating.

Eventually, the pair reached a door and came to a halt. The door was towards the rear end of the fourth deck. A little out of the way from where the passengers typically are, however, not quite in the area dominated by crewmen. It was situated underneath a portion of a staircase, and if you weren’t specifically looking for it, you would most likely miss it every time you pass by.

Luz placed her hand on the doorknob and looked to Amity. “Are you ready?” she asked.

Amity has a look of curiosity and concern as Luz asked her question. “I suppose…” she said hesitantly.

Luz smiled, saying “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll love it,” as she opened the door.

Luz was right. Amity  _ loved _ it.

The door opened to reveal a small lounge room, featuring two comfy armchairs, a couch, and a coffee table. Two of the walls featured bookshelves chock full of books, one wall had a gramophone and a collection of records, and the last wall featured a large viewport with a spectacular view of the sun setting over the Atlantic.

Sunlight from the setting sun streamed into the room, bathing it in a magical orange glow. A couple of knick-knacks on the shelves and coffee table gleamed with a shine in the light and added to the magic of the scene.

It was as if the sun had created this tiny space, and was sharing it with the two girls.

“I found this room while exploring the ship,” Luz said as Amity began to enter the room. “I’m sure the higher-ranking officers know about it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone come in here. Plus, I’ve spent hours here reading some of the Science Journals that are on the bookshelves and I’ve never encountered anyone.”

Amity moved to the bookshelves, running a hand over some of the books.

“I always love how this room looks when the sunset is shining through the window,” Luz said, following Amity into the room and closing the door. She started to wring her hands together as her nerves started getting the best of her.

“I had a lot of fun hanging out with you today, and so I was thinking,” Luz said as Amity’s attention shifted back to her. “We could make this room our kind of hideout, you know? I mean no one would bother us so we could do what we’d like more or less. Plus, we’d always know where to find each other this way, and we wouldn’t have to spend time trying to find each other when we could-”

Luz’s rambling was cut off by the unexpected hug from Amity.

Amity whispered from where she dug her face into Luz’s neck. “You really want to share this space with me?”

It took Luz a moment to understand what she said, but she answered as she returned Amity’s hug. “Yes, I do.”

When Amity raised her head and pulled back from her slightly, Luz could see teardrops running down her cheeks.

“Ohmygoshareyouokay? Ishouldn’thavebroughtyouhereI’msorrythat’smybadI-” Luz’s quick rambling was cut off as Amity held a finger up to her lips.

“I’m fine,” Amity answered. “This is just like the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

For the first time, Amity had been given an escape. An escape from her duties. An escape from her siblings. An escape from her parents. 

An escape from her mask.

Here she could be herself. Here she could behave whatever way she pleased. Here she could be alone if she ever truly wished to be.

Before Luz could say anything else, Amity answered her unspoken question. “I would love to hang out with you here Luz. I’ll come meet you here every day.”

Luz beamed brightly at the prospect of being able to hang out with her new friend all the time and pulled Amity in for another hug, one that Amity returned deeply.

Thanks to the small forgotten lounge, Luz now had someone she could share her unending love of airships with, and Amity had the freedom to finally start her journey of true self-discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for beta reading, and an additional should out to my new beta reader [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) !


	5. The Tour of London

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity takes Luz on a “Tour” of London. (Hehe)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone! Thanks so much for all the support and comments that you guys are giving this fic. I wasn’t writing this to get much out of it (of course I want the fic to get attention, duh, it’s just not a priority) but I’m amazed that this many people are enjoying this story. Hope you stick around too because I have now planned up to chapter 25!
> 
> Big thing to mention for this chapter, THEY ARE AGED UP! Nothing major happens in this chapter aside from a few “sexy” descriptions, but I want you guys to be prepared for more in the future. As always read the tags, I will update them when/as needed.
> 
> Also, I know this is a long one. Like, A LOT longer than the others. Sorry if this bugs you, but I like it and think it's hella worth it 😈.

Another day after Luz gave Amity a tour of The Hexus, the airship landed on The London Royal Landing Fields. To say that a large crowd had attended the landing was an understatement. 

Emira was on duty as the helmsman when the ship landed. Captain Lilith took charge of the landing procedures to ensure that everything went down without a hitch.

“Continue your turn helmsman, lowering to 4 degrees. Cut the main engine,” Lilith said from the Captain’s position on the bridge.

“Continuing my turn, lowering to 4 degrees and cutting the main engine, aye ma’am,” Emira responded as she eased up on the main wheel and cut the main engine.

“Current altitude?” Lilith asked as she looked to the elevator standing by the elevation controls.

“Current altitude is 150 feet, negative pitch of 5 degrees,” the elevator responded, knowing exactly what information the Captain needed from that question.

Lilith nodded and waited a moment before she gave her next command. “Upon reaching 70 feet set level pitch and release 30 pounds of lift gas. Upon callout of 70-foot altitude, set guide engines to slow.”

“Upon my callout of 70-foot altitude, set level pitch and release 30 pounds of lift gas, aye,” the elevator responded and in the next moment Emira also responded, “Upon callout of 70-foot altitude, set guide engines to slow.”

Not much longer afterwards, the 70-foot altitude was reached. Upon hearing the elevator’s callout, Emira set the guide engines to slow and awaited the final command from Captain Lilith.

“Helmsman, straighten out and cut guide engines. Mr. Porter, inform the deckhands to cast the ropes,” Captain Lilith commanded as she stood from her seated position. “Once we’re tied down, lock up your stations and go about your business as scheduled.”

“Straightening out and cutting engines, aye ma’am,” Emira said at the same time Mr. Porter answered, “Informing the deckhands to cast ropes, aye.”

Once their tasks had been completed, Emira locked up the wheel and the secondary engine controls to ensure that no one would accidentally set anything off. After doing this, she left the Bridge with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, as once the landing ceremonies were complete, she and Edric had a scheme to unfold.

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_“Thank God this is the last ceremony we have to deal with till the end of the year,”_ Amity thought as her father drawled on about the importance of completing the inaugural flight.

Amity couldn’t wait for Alador’s speech to be finished so she could hang out with Luz. Once you’ve completed an inaugural flight at least a dozen times, the rest blur together and become barely a passing thought. It would be nice to change things up and do something besides walk around the cold, wet streets of London for the umpteenth time.

“And with this flight complete, I thank you all for witnessing this momentous occasion and do hope to see you all onboard a C.C.L. airship sooner rather than later,” Alador said, completing his speech and bowing low to the audience before quickly turning and leaving the stage along with the rest of those who were on stage as well.

Once off stage, Alador and Odalia made a beeline for a waiting car, leaving without so much as a glance towards their children. This gave the twins the perfect opportunity to bombard their sister.

“So Amity… what plans have you got now that we’re here in London?” Emira asked as both her and Edric wrapped an arm around Amity’s shoulders.

Amity sighed, already missing their father’s presence, for although it may not have been a friendly one, it at least kept the twins at bay. “If you must know, I plan on finishing my book back on the ship.”

“Awe come-on now Mittens, don’t you want to get out and do something fun while we’re here?” Edric pouted.

“Edric, all three of us have been here over a dozen times. There is literally no point in going anywhere in the city, “ Amity said as she brushed off the twins and began to walk back towards the ship.

The twins turned and leaned on each other’s backs, both crossing their arms as they said in unison, “So you aren’t going to show a certain someone around the city?”

Amity stopped dead in her tracks.

“What are you talking about?” Amity asked, turning to look over her shoulder at her siblings.

Emira inspected one of her nails, trying to look uninterested. “Well, there are some people aboard The Hexus who have never been to London before, and I’m sure they’d love to have someone show them around.”

“She’s right, Mittens. You know most of the apprentices on board haven’t been to as many different places as the three of us have. I’d bet they’d do anything to get a glimpse at some of the places they haven’t been to.” Edric added, fiddling with his cufflinks.

Amity looked straight ahead as a blush deepened on her cheeks. Amity knew what the twins were getting at, just as the twins knew very well what they were suggesting.

“I’m sure the apprentices can find someone to show them around the city if they look hard enough. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go finish my book,” Amity said, dismissing the twins as she continued her walk back to the airship.

Edric and Emira exchanged a mischievous grin.

They both knew that Amity was now planning how to give Luz a tour of the city. It had been their intent all along. There really _was_ no point in any of the three of them going into the city on their own accord. London had lost its charm for the siblings. However, if all of those trips together had taught the twins anything, it was how to get under Amity’s skin.

The plan was moving along nicely.

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“Alright Viney, I’m ready when you are,” Luz said as she waited over by one of the main steam line valves.

With the main engine shutdown and the airship having completed its inaugural flight, it was time for an international inspection team to come and ensure that the ship was still legally allowed to fly. 

About a decade before Luz was born, there was a terrible accident. It’s commonly referred to as “The Turning Point” for modern airship travel. A ship known as the Mint Grace had been the pride of the German Airship Corp. She was the largest ship at the time and flew thanks to large gasbags full of hydrogen, which, as everyone knows now, is the _wrong_ gas to use to fly.

After making its inaugural flight across the Atlantic, the Mint Grace was in its landing procedures over the New York Landing Fields, and hundreds of people were excited to see the amazing piece of German engineering. The ship was drifting smoothly towards the ground, and the crew was visibly preparing to throw down ropes to keep the ship tied down...

Then disaster struck.

A rope handler missed their throw and scraped the metal hook tied to their rope against the side of the gondola they were in. The spark they created caught the fabric of one of the gasbags on fire. Within seconds, the entire ship was engulfed in flames. The burning hulk crashed to the ground, killing almost every crewman along with dozens of spectators.

This single event nearly destroyed the airship as the world knew it. No one wanted to ride on something that could explode so violently in mere seconds. With no one riding airships, cruise lines were beginning to transition back to traditional cruise ships and abandoning the airship. However, the airship wasn't about to go down without a fight and was saved thanks to another famous German Engineer.

At first, the world was skeptical. If the Germans were responsible - in the eyes of the public - for the destruction of airships, how could they possibly bring them back? Well, the engineer proved that they had saved airships, by lighting a ship on fire. In the air. When the flames were first spotted on the ground, people panicked and ran for cover. However, as they continued to watch, the ship didn’t explode into flames. While the gasbags were on fire, the gas inside simply kept escaping, rather than igniting. This engineer had successfully introduced the world to the safety of Lifting Gas, a mixture of steam and heated helium.

While Lifting Gas saved the airship and restored the public confidence, the nations of the world decided that there should be standards for airship safety, and thus the International Airship Accords were established. This agreement created an organization that would regulate airship construction, maintenance, living standards, and more to ensure that airships would forever be a safe way to travel. To do this, the International Inspection Teams - referred to as IITs - were established, teams that would inspect every airship according to rules and laws that were set by the I.A.A. One of these conditions for checking a ship was inspecting the engines and L.G.S. after the first inaugural flight of the ship. No airship could take off a second time before it was inspected. To do so would mean to forfeit the airship and immediately sentence it to be scrapped.

“On my mark, Luz. One… two… three… Mark!” Viney shouted as she and Luz both turned to open the main valve of the main steam line. Once the valve was opened, a loud hissing could be heard as all the steam pressure of the ship was expelled.

“All steam lines are losing pressure. Nice work kid. You too, Vin,” Eda called up from the Main Control Room. 

“Stop calling me Vin, Eda!” Viney shouted in annoyance from the catwalk she and Luz were now on as they made their way to a staircase that would take them to the Control Room.

“Whatever you say, Vin,” Eda said with an almost inaudible snicker.

Viney sighed, not knowing why she bothered trying to correct the Head Engineer.

Luz, oblivious to Viney’s turmoil, asked in a chipper voice, “Hey, Viney, how long do you think the inspection will take?”

“Well I haven’t participated in one before, but my guess would be no more than a day or two,” Viney answered as the two headed down the staircase.

“Is there anything we have to do to help them?” Luz asked as they made it to the Control Room.

This time, it was Eda who answered Luz’s question. “We engineers aren’t allowed to help the IITs. As we work with the ship directly, they can’t trust us to keep an unbiased mind regarding the tests they run on the ship, not that I blame them. What engineer wouldn’t want their baby to pass with flying colors?”

Luz nodded in understanding. “Alright, well what do we do then?”

Eda beamed. “Whatever we want! Consider the next couple of days a vacation.”

Luz’s eyes widened with excitement. “Really? We don’t have anything to do for the next couple of days!?”

Eda laughed. “You betcha kid. Now go enjoy London. I’m sure you’re dying to go check it out.”

Luz had already begun running out of the Engine Room as she called back, “I will! I’m gonna make sure I see everything!”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity was looking around the ship for Luz. 

Once the twins had put the idea of giving Luz a tour of the city in her head, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. For some reason, she _really_ wanted to give Luz a tour of London.

Amity paused in her search to think. _“Where could she be? She wasn’t in the secret lounge. Maybe she’s still in the Engine Room?”_

Amity knew that the International Inspection Team would kick every engineer out of the Engine Room while they conducted their tests and inspections, so maybe Luz just hadn’t left yet?

With her mind made up, Amity began to head towards the Engine Room.

No sooner had she turned the next corner in the hallway did she see Luz sprinting towards her from the other end of the hallway.

“Amity!” Luz called as she quickened her pace and more or less slammed into Amity as she pulled her into a tight hug. “I found you!”

“Hey Luz,” Amity said as the wind was knocked out of her lungs from the force of Luz’s tackle. After she took a moment to catch her breath, she asked, “Wait, did you say you were looking for me?”

“Yup!” Luz said cheerfully as she let go of Amity. “I have the next couple days off while the ITs do their thing. I didn’t know if you wanted to do something together. Maybe go into the City and check things out?”

Amity blushed at the thought of Luz seeking her out to spend time with her. “Actually,” she began hesitantly, “I was looking for you too. Since I’ve been to London so many times, I actually wanted to offer to give you a tour of the city.”

“That’d be great!” Luz said as she bounced slightly. “It could be like a date!”

Silence.

The hallway was dead quiet as both girls processed what was just said.

_“A date? A_ date _!?!?”_

Both girls blushed crimson as they began to come back to their senses.

After processing the idea that this could be considered a date, Luz looked down at her grease-stained clothes. They were filthy, and she needed to change. 

“So then… uh… I should probably make sure I’m not covered in grease. Meet back in the lounge when we’re ready to go?” Luz asked, the both of them still blushing.

“Uh...ye-yeah sure! That’s fine,” Amity stuttered, not quite having come back from the shock of the suggestion.

“Cool. Then I’ll uh… I’ll meet you there!” Luz replied, and before Amity could even attempt to say something else, Luz turned and ran back down the hallway towards her cabin.

Amity stood in the hallway for a moment in shock as she finally processed everything. Now that she was thinking about the tour as a date, her outfit called her attention. _“My clothes are fine right? I don’t need to change. All of my clothes are nice!”_ she thought, unsure.

Amity decided, upon further inspection, that she hated everything she was wearing, and swiftly turned on her hell, running back to her own cabin to change before her date with Luz.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first to make it back to the Lounge after changing was Amity. In the end, she didn’t dress up that much fancier than her usual black leather corset bustier over a purple dress that ended in a frilly skirt. However, this dress was longer, hugging her legs a little tighter, and had longer sleeves to it. Additionally, the leather bustier was accentuated by a green that was very similar to her hair color. And if one also paid close enough attention, they might have noticed that Amity had tightened her corset a smidge more, to really accentuate her curved figure.

She paced around the Lounge nervously. Although she knew that Luz was just getting changed, her fear of rejection had caused her mind to start spiraling through worst-case scenarios.

_“What if she changed her mind? What if she didn’t really want to go on this da- … tour with me? What if she found someone else that she would rather have to take her on a-”_

Before she finished her last thought, the door to the Lounge opened, which caused Amity to stop overthinking and turn her attention towards the stunning girl stepping through.

As the two looked at each other, they both blushed and their mouths dropped slightly.

_“She’s beautiful,”_ they thought in unison.

Luz had entered the lounge wearing what was more or less her usual attire of leather pants, white shirt, and vest. However, her leather pants were not as loose and pocket full. They hugged her physique very well and left little to Amity’s imagination. Additionally, she wore a nice cream-colored suit jacket that accentuated the dark brown of her vest and pants very well.

Luz came to her senses first and coughed before she addressed Amity. “You look really nice Amity. I like the green on your corset.”

Amity shook her head slightly to clear her mind, “Yes… Uhm… thank you, Luz. I like your suit jacket. It _suits_ you.”

Luz took the golden opportunity to tease Amity and to ease the tension between them. “Why Ms. Blight, I do hope that was an intended pun on your part, yes?”

It took Amity a moment to figure out what exactly Luz had referred to before realizing it was her “suits you” comment. She chuckled slightly before playing along as well. “But of course. After all, the compliment was simply so I could make that ludicrous pun.”

Luz fell dramatically on the couch. “Oh, how you wound me my fair maiden! To think my looks are simply for your amusement.”

Before any thoughts could come to Amity’s mind that would turn her face into a tomato after Luz’s last comment, she nodded toward the door.

“Alright let’s head out. We should get going if we want to see everything.”

Luz stood up from her position on the couch and offered Amity her arm to take. Despite the blush that grew on both girls' cheeks, Amity managed to hook her arm in Luz’s and maintained her composure. “Then lead the way!”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity and Luz walked through the streets of London arm in arm. They both decided that, having been confined to the cramped spaces aboard The Hexus for so long, they should stretch their legs for a bit rather than just take a car to where they wanted to go.

Of course, this was just a convenient excuse for the two of them since neither wished to break contact with the other.

Their first stop on the tour was Buckingham Palace. As the Palace came into view, Luz, in her excitement, completely forgot about her desire to continue holding onto Amity’s arm and ran ahead to the fence to get a better look at the Queen’s home.

Amity missed the contact with Luz, however, her disappointment was quickly discarded due to Luz’s excitement. She walked up next to Luz and began to act as a typical tour guide, explaining in detail the things she knew about the castle.

“Yes, the Palace is where the Queen and her infamous Corgis all live. You should see the inside, it's just as spectacular.” Amity said matter-of-factly as though she were an honest tour guide.

“Wow!” Luz said, staring at the Palace through a gap in the metal fence surrounding the Palace Grounds. “Wait, did you say you’ve been _inside_ the Palace!?” Luz asked Amity, almost at a shout.

“Well, yeah. My father has done business with the British Airship Service, and our family was invited to one of the Queen’s formal dinner functions. I’ve actually met the Queen herself!”

Luz had a sparkle in her eyes. “That’s Amazing! I wish I could meet the Queen,” Luz said with a slight hint of disappointment at the end of her statement. At that moment, Amity noticed a guard along the fence that she recognized.

“Wait right here for a second Luz, I have an idea,” Amity said as she ran off toward the guard.

Luz stayed where she was, trying to take in every bit of the Palace that she could see from the outside of the fence. After a minute or two, she heard her name being called and found Amity waving her over. She left her spot and went to join Amity.

“What’s up?” Luz asked as she reached the spot where Amity was. 

“A guard I met at the dinner function I went to said he could get us in to see the ballroom. I know it's not much of the Palace bu-”

“Amity that’s amazing! I’ll get to go _inside_ Buckingham Palace!” Luz said in another near shout.

“Shh,” Amity said with sudden nervousness, “we can’t advertise that we’re going to be taken in. We have to stay quiet and out of the way. We’re probably just going to get a quick glance at the ballroom since we can’t stay long, alright?”

Luz, not trusting herself not to shout for joy, simply nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright, let’s go then,” Amity said as she turned and followed the guard as he led the two girls into the Palace.

After a minute or two of walking down the servant's hallways, a walk that left Luz bug-eyed in wonder despite the lack of much grandeur, the guard stopped them at a door.

“There shouldn’t be anyone in the ballroom at the moment. You guys can look around for about five minutes, but then I need to take you back to the fence. So, stay near this door okay?” the guard said with an undertone that obviously told the girls to do exactly as he said.

The girls nodded and the guard opened the door for them. They went through the door with the guard following the two.

The ballroom was breathtaking.

Two long tables spread out down the length of the room, with a head table at one end of the room. Large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling illuminating the room beautifully. The walls were lined with marble pillars and accented with gold. A deep red carpet covered the whole of the room, completing the royal aesthetic of the ballroom.

Amity had seen the room before, so she was not as enthralled as Luz was. Luz, on the other hand, was looking around from one feature to another with wide eyes, trying to take everything in, acting as though if she blinked, the entire moment would be over and she wouldn’t remember a thing.

A thought struck Luz that brought a blush to her cheeks. However, she steeled her resolve and turned to Amity.

“Hey Amity, do you think we have time for a dance?” she asked, a blush still hitting her cheeks.

“A—a—a dance?” Amity asked, a blush growing on her cheeks.

“Yeah!” Luz said, building off of her natural confidence, “This is a ballroom after all right? You have to dance when you’re in a ballroom.”

“I...um...I suppose if it’s a short one.” Amity replied, fidgeting with her sleeves slightly.

With this response, Luz grabbed Amity’s hands and set them both up to dance. “Great! I can hum us a little tune to keep our time.”

Before Amity could say anything more, Luz had begun to hum a waltz, and the two were off dancing along the wall of the ballroom.

True to their word, or more accurately their head nod, they stayed quiet and out of the way. At least, on the outside.

On the inside, both girls were freaking out. Eventually, they decided to merely enjoy the moment, though both of them had turned a solid shade of red as they danced.

Eventually, Luz’s waltz ended and the two stopped dancing. For a moment, they stood staring at each other. They took in the other’s expressions, clothing, and eventually got lost in the other’s eyes again. More than likely, they would have stood like that for hours if it wasn’t for the guard getting their attention, and ushering them back through the servant’s hallways towards the exit of the palace. Upon reaching the outer side of the fence, and with the moment in the ballroom gone, the two girls regrouped and continued their tour of the city.

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Emira and Edric watched from across the street as Luz and Amity bid their thanks to the palace guard for letting them inside, and continued on their way to the next London attraction that Amity wanted to show Luz. 

“What do you think happened in there?” Edric asked as the two followed Luz and Amity from the opposite side of the street.

“Edric, I was out here with you. How am I supposed to know what happened?” Emira responded harshly.

“Well, sorry I’m curious Em. This is just so exciting. Mittens is on a date!” Edric said, sounding like an excited schoolgirl.

Emira rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s exciting Ed. But, if we’re gonna get them to take the next step today, we gotta stay focused alright?”

“Yeah yeah I will. Do you think they’ll get to the Eye?” Edric asked as they approached Big Ben.

“Of course they will Ed. Remember this is Luz we’re talking about. How could she not want to ride on the Eye?”

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Amity and Luz reached the parliament square green right before Big Ben sounded the hour.

“There isn’t much to do here asides from listening to Big Ben’s 5 bells chime. Luckily, that’s not that long from now so we won’t have to wait for very long.” Amity said as the two girls took to walking around the square.

During their walk from the palace, the two had become much more comfortable in each other's presence, despite the constant thoughts about how they were on a date with each other. The atmosphere between the two had become very comfortable and relaxing.

“That’s alright, not like we can make time go by any faster. While we’re here though, who are all these people?” Luz asked as she gestured to the statues that surrounded the square.

“Each statue represents a British, Commonwealth, or foreign political figure. Take this one for example,” Amity gestured to one of the statues they had passed, “He is Sir Robert Peel. He’s recognized as one of the fathers of Britain’s modern policing practices and helped create the Metropolitan Police Service. In fact he...”

As the two continued to walk around the square as they waited for Big Ben to chime, Amity went off listing facts about different statues as they passed them. Luz took the chance to watch Amity as she rattled off different facts about one important person after another. She noticed the way that Amity used her hands to emphasize what she was talking about. She seemed to enjoy the subject, and Luz assumed that Amity didn’t know many people who would let her simply talk aimlessly about whatever she wanted. It became almost hypnotizing how Amity smiled at, what Luz assumed to be, were clever jokes she was making about the people she was talking about, and how her hands moved in perfect rhythm with what she was saying. 

Eventually, Amity paused her rant about political figures and turned to find Luz staring at her. Their eyes met and both of them stopped walking to once again admire the view. While some of the awkward tension arose between them once more, this time there wasn’t much of it. They both moved to the side of the path, making sure they weren’t in anyone’s way and continued to watch the other. Then, it happened.

Luz’s eyes flickered to Amity’s lips.

It was slight, almost barely noticeable if it wasn’t for the fact the two had been staring into each other’s eyes for the last minute or two.

Then it happened again.

Only this time, it was Amity’s eyes that flickered.

Just as with Luz’s shift in gaze, it was barely noticed, and both girls questioned if the other had even actually done it at all. 

Before either girl’s eyes flicked down to the other’s lips again, Big Ben’s mighty bells rang out across the square, marking the change in the hour.

The two girls, startled by the bells, jumped away from each other and each had a blush rise to their cheeks.

_“When did we get so close to each other?”_ both thought as they each got their blush under control.

As the bells continued to ring, the two moved back toward each other, staying at a noticeable but not awkward distance, and looked up to Big Ben. When the bells finished ringing, the two turned back to each other, and while some more pink dusted each of their cheeks, hopefully, they would be able to keep things from becoming awkward again.

“How long has Big Ben been around for?” Luz asked as they continued walking around the square.

“While construction started in 1843, the tower wasn’t finished until 1859. It’s part of the ‘new’ parliament houses that were built after the first ones were destroyed in a fire,” Amity stated matter of factly.

“Wow, that’s really cool that it’s been around for so lo- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT!?” Luz shouted excitedly as the two rounded the corner of parliament square that led to the River Thames, pointing at what appeared to be a large wheel.

“Oh, that’s the London Eye. It’s the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe,” Amity answered after a moment, having been startled by Luz’s sudden shout.

Luz spun around and gave Amity huge puppy-dog eyes. “Can we ride on it? Can we, can we, _please_??”

_“Oh my gosh, she’s so cute!”_ Amity thought to herself as she answered, “Uh, yeah sure. We can ride on it if you want.”

Luz jumped in excitement as she grabbed Amity’s arm and led them over the Ferris Wheel, excitement sparkling in her eyes as Amity stared in awe of Luz’s excitement.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edric ran back to the table where Emira was sitting at a Caffe across the street from the London Eye.

“So did it work? Did he take the bribe?” Emira asked eagerly as her brother sat down at the table.

“Yup! He said he’s going to fake a mechanical problem, though he can’t promise how long they’ll be stuck up there for.” Edric answered, slightly out of breath having just run from across the street.

“Yes!” Emira cheered excitedly, pulling out a pair of binoculars, “If all goes according to plan, they’ll be kissing before we know it.”

“Let’s just hope mittens can pull it off and doesn’t chicken out at the last minute,” Edric said skeptically.

“Oh give our sister _some_ credit Ed, this is Mittens we are talking about after all.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity and Luz entered their pod of the London Eye and sat down next to each other as the door was closed behind them. To make sure everyone got equal time on the Eye, the Ferris wheel was in constant motion, which meant that it wasn’t long before their pod started to lift into the air.

Luz was looking around the pod and taking in the view like a kid admiring gifts under a Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Everything she noticed made her look from one thing to another as though she couldn’t look at it fast enough.

Amity on the other hand had one view to admire, and that was Luz. She had been on the Eye many times and so the experience was nothing new to her. Luz’s excitement, however, was a new experience that she did not think she would ever tire of. 

“Wow, Amity this is Amazing! It’s almost like we’re in an airship,” Luz giggled as she continued to take in the views around her.

“Well, when we reach the top we’ll only be about 150 feet short of our usual altitude when flying over major cities like this one,” Amity said in an attempt to increase Luz’s wonder.

Luz turned to face Amity, “You sure do know a lot about, well, pretty much everything huh Amity?”

Amity blushed and turned away from Luz, “Well, I’ve been reading books for most of my life, and a lot of things are expected of me, like knowing things about airships. I am the daughter of a cruise line owner after all.”

“Amity, I’ve been curious. I know you like to read but, is there anything else that you like to do?” Luz asked cautiously as she built up the courage to ask such a personal question.

“What do you mean?” Amity asked confusedly.

“Well, it just seems to me like you read because there isn’t anything else for you to do. Is there nothing that you would rather do ins- OOF!” Luz was cut off by the lurching halt of the Ferris wheel.

Dashing to the window, Luz looked out and saw that the entire Ferris wheel had stopped suddenly, and it appeared that they were stuck, alone with each other, at the very top of the structure.“What? Why’d we stop?” Luz asked confusedly.

Amity grunted from almost falling off of the bench they were on. “Well, I would have to guess somethings wrong. Most likely there was a mechanical failure that the operators will have to fix.”

“So then what do we do while we wait?” Luz asked, turning back to her date.

“Nothing special. We just wait until they fix the problem, then the Ferris wheel will start up again.” Amity answered, keeping her gaze away from Luz as she didn’t want to confront Luz about the question she almost finished asking.

The two settled into silence, each subtly avoiding the other’s gaze. Luz’s thoughts were occupied with questions as to whether or not she should try to ask her question again. She knew it was personal and the way Amity was avoiding her most likely meant she was uncomfortable with the question. Yet she wanted to know. Was Amity doing what she does simply to satisfy her father’s expectations? Has she really never done anything simply because she wanted to? How could anyone live like that?

Amity’s thoughts were occupied with similar questions. She knew the question that Luz was going to finish. It was one that she didn’t let herself think about cause she wasn’t sure she’d like the answer she found. Is there anything that really interests her? Sure she likes reading fictional stories, but that came as a result of having read so many nonfiction books. Has she ever done anything of her own free will? Or has it all been just to satisfy her father, who seems as though he couldn’t care less of her?

Both girls came to a decision and turned to look at each other.

“Hey Amity, it’s okay if-”

“Luz, you deserve an ans-”

Then their eyes met.

In the small pod that the two were sitting in, the two were forced to sit rather close to each other, resulting in them both being closer to each other than they had ever been before. At such a close distance, they were able to admire each other’s features with an unobstructed view.

Amity was once again reminded of a bookshelf as she stared into Luz’s eyes. They were so safe and inviting, the care that was expressed in them flooded into her being like a burst dam. The ever-present tension that resulted from making sure she was the perfect daughter at all times melted as it was pushed away by the care and safety that she could see.

Luz, as before, had the same sensation of looking at a piece of hard candy, filled with a sweet center that most people never got to see, if anyone even ever had before. However, this time was different. There were cracks in the hard candy shell. With some more work, Luz would be able to crack that shell and experience the sweet center of the candy. Luz was determined to enjoy that sweet candy center and set her mind to working harder to break through the tough exterior.

They began to lean into each other.

Neither girl comprehended what was happening until they both flicked their eyes down to the other’s lips.

Their leaning halted as they each had to take a moment to comprehend what just happened. However the prospect of what that meant kept either of them from moving back and processing the situation. 

They began to lean into each other again.

Within moments they could feel each other’s breaths tickle their lips. They could smell the perfumes that they each had put on before going on their impromptu date. Their hands slipped over each other’s on the bench as they moved to close the final gap, bringing them perfectly together for the very first time.

Then the Ferris wheel lurched.

Luz fell back onto the wall behind her as Amity fell gracelessly on top of Luz. While the Ferris wheel once more continued rotating, the girls’ faces became red as they both tried to get out of their current situation.

“OH MY GOSH LUZ I’M SO SORRY!” Amity said frantically as she scrambled to remove herself from atop of Luz. “I TOTALLY DIDN’T MEAN TO DO THAT I CAN’T BELI- OOF!” In the midst of her frantic motions, Amity’s hand slipped off the bench and she once more landed atop of Luz, only this time more violently, which caused Luz to grunt audibly.

Before Amity could start another string of apologies, Luz helped them both sit upright on the bench. “Amity it’s fine, don’t worry about it. The Ferris wheel just caught us off guard. It’s alright,” she said through gritted teeth as she had just been more or less punched in the gut.

Both girls continued to blush a furious red, as they each knew what the moment they just shared would have led to had they not been interrupted.

_“Oh my god. We almost kissed!”_

There was now that awkward tension again as both girls attempted to distance themselves on the bench as much as the pod would allow. Neither knew what to say to dissuade the tension, so both girls decided to ponder what the moment they just almost shared meant to each of them as they finished their revolution around the Ferris wheel.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Dammit!” Emira shouted angrily as she threw the binoculars she was holding onto the table she and Edric were seated at.

Despite the momentary increase of glances from the people nearby, Edric looked up from the sandwich he was eating. “What? What happened?” he asked quickly.

“That damned operator. We should get our bribe money back,” Emira said angrily as she took a violent bite out of her own sandwich.

“Come on Emira don’t leave me in the dark, what happened?” Edric asked again.

“They were this close Edric,” Emira held up her fingers indicating a very small gap. “This close to kissing each other! Then the wheel started moving again, and Amity fell on top of Luz ruining the moment.”

Edric, not as phased at this outcome as his sister was, simply took another bite out of his sandwich. “Damn, that is a shame. We should get our money back.” He said through a mouthful of food.

“Should we try to set anything else up?” Edric asked his sister as she put away the pair of binoculars.

“No, this was our best bet at keeping them contained in a small space. We’ll just have to follow them and hope they do something on their own.” Emira said, slightly disappointed.

“Welp, the year is still young. We’ll have plenty of time to get those two to kiss.” Edric said through another mouthful of sandwich.

“It _better_ be enough time,” Emira said, taking another angry bite out of her sandwich.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz and Amity walked along the River Thames in a kind of awkward silence. The two still felt the effects of their broken moment on the Eye, and that led them to walk with a noticeable gap between them. 

The two girls each wanted to close the distance and get rid of the silence, but neither knew how.

Conveniently, Luz’s stomach chose that moment to grumble from hunger. It caused her to blush, however, after a moment of quick glances between the two, both girls burst into a fit of giggles at how ridiculous it was that Luz’s hunger would be what broke the two out of their awkward silence.

“Sorry,” Luz said as she stifled her giggles, “I guess I’m a little hungry.”

Amity thought for a moment about good places nearby to eat. One particular spot came to mind rather quickly.

“Hey Luz, you know how on the Eye you were trying to ask me about things I like?” Amity said cautiously.

“Oh. Yeah don’t worry about it Amity, I was just being nosy. Don’t feel like you ha-” Luz was cut off as Amity went on.

“Well, there is a place I like to go to when I’m in London. Emira and I found it when we did some things with just the two of us. If you’d like, I could take us there. Show you something that I like asides from reading,” Amity finished with a nervous giggle and a growing blush, as this was the most she had ever really spoken about her interests to anyone before.

Luz stared with an awestruck expression. It was like she could see the hard outer shell of the candy begin to crumble away in larger chunks. “Yeah, I’d love that. Lead the way!” she said excitedly as she playfully nudged Amity’s shoulder with her own.

After about a 15 min taxi-ride, the two reached Regent’s Park and made their way to the Board Walk Cafe. As they arrived, two got in line and Amity started talking about what she liked about the small Cafe.

“My favorite thing here is their Chocolate Caramel cake. That and their Almond Croissants, and I’m definitely getting both. What do you think you’ll have?” Amity asked Luz as Luz perused the menu.

“You know what. I’ll do the same. See what makes this little Cafe so enticing to Ms. Amity Blight,” Luz winked playfully causing Amity to giggle.

Upon reaching the counter, Amity placed their double order and paid while Luz picked up their goodies from the other end of the counter. After splitting the food between the two, they left the Cafe and found a bench where they sat to enjoy their meal.

“Oh my gosh, Amity this is amazing!” Luz said through a mouthful of half Almond Croissant and half Chocolate Caramel Cake. “No wonder you like this place.”

Amity giggled at Luz’s excitement. “Why don’t you try eating them one at a time? They’ll last longer that way.”

It was Luz’s turn to giggle. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It’s just so good!” Luz said with a slight squeal.

After the two enjoyed their meal, they decided on walking through the park so that Amity could show Luz her favorite areas of the park.

As they passed by a pond shaded by tall strong oak trees, the setting sun began to shine through, illuminating the pond in a golden glow. The two stopped to watch the light dance off of the pond and the nearby flowers.

Amity took the moment to relish being in one of the places that she now realized, she genuinely likes to be. If it wasn’t for Luz asking those questions back on the London Eye, would she ever have figured that out? She honestly can’t say for sure, and so she decided to simply enjoy being where she was. 

Luz took the moment to watch Amity enjoying herself. While watching the way she admired the view, the way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the way she did _anything_ at that moment, Luz knew with confidence she was breaking through. She knew that their time together was withering down on Amity’s hard outer shell. If she kept playing her cards right, she would most definitely see the sweet center of the candy.

As Luz was more or less staring at Amity, it was _inevitable_ that the two would once more lock eyes with each other. And, low and behold, as Amity turned to ask Luz a question, their eyes once more met, and a very familiar air settled between the two of them.

They both took a step or two closer to each other, and Amity _did_ try to say something, but once again their minds went blank as they took in the other’s appearance.

With the golden light of the sunset shining off the pond next to them, for the second time that day, they began to lean into each other. When their gazes inevitably began to flicker to each other’s lips, there was no pause. If anything, it gave the girls the courage they needed to go through with what each of them so badly wanted to do at that moment. Their eyes flickered more often, their breath tickled their lips, their perfumes’ filled their noses, and they moved to complete the kiss, their lips barely a breath apart.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Stop pushing me!” Edric said as he shoved his hand into his sister’s face.

“Well, why don’t you go find another bush!?” Emira asked as she kicked her brother’s side.

“And let you get the best vantage point? Not a chance!” Edric said as he pulled on his sister’s hair.

“Oh, a hair pull? Wow how mature,” Emira said sarcastically as she pulled on her brother’s collar.

“Says the one choking me with my own collar,” Edric retorted just as sarcastically with a choked voice.

“If you don’t knock it off we’re gonna miss the kiss!” Emira said as she shoved her brother away again.

“Why don’t you knock it off fir- WHAA!” Edric screamed as he pushed Emira, their combined momentum throwing them out of the bush they attempted to hide in, resulting in a loud crash of tangled limbs only a couple of feet from where Luz and Amity stood.

The two girls quickly broke apart from their almost kiss, a dark red blush quickly growing on both girls’ cheeks. As the two turned to see Edric and Emira lying on the ground with their limbs entwined, Amity’s red blush of embarrassment quickly turned to one of red hot anger.

“Were you two spying on us!?” She demanded furiously.

Edric and Emira, both knowing they had been caught red-handed, rubbed the back of their necks guiltily.

“No?” They both said at the same time.

“Ugh, I can’t believe this! A perfect day ruined all because of you two! Let’s go, Luz,” Amity said in her fury, grabbing Luz’s hand and pulling her away from her two annoying siblings.

As Amity stormed off with Luz, both of the girls slightly too exasperated from the quick-moving events of the last half-minute, Edric and Emira smiled mischievously at each other.

Today’s chances of getting the two girls to kiss had been a bust, but it was obvious they were into each other.

It wouldn’t be long until the moment was just right for the two to share their first kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) , and [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) for beta reading the chapter.
> 
> Also, sorry this took so long to come out. As it’s longer it took, obviously, longer to edit and get good enough to be released. Hopefully the next time a big chapter comes you guys won’t have to wait so long!
> 
> P.S. For anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpE4j4UnU3U is the link to the song that Luz was humming in the palace.


	6. The Fearless Champions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity saves Willow and the twins make some secret plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So the main thing for this chapter is there is some minor abuse-esque violence. It doesn’t last for long and nothing explicit happens, but in case anyone is sensitive to that I wanted to warn you off the bat.

The next day back aboard The Hexus, Amity felt great. Even though Edric and Emira ruined the end of their date, Amity had a lot of fun spending the previous day with Luz. Constant blushing and awkward tension included. 

After they made it back to the ship, the two decided they would spend the next day in the comforts of their secret lounge rather than deal with Edric and Emira spying on them again.

As such, once Amity had finished getting ready for the day, she began to make her way towards the lounge, an almost noticeable pep in her step.

“Can’t you do anything right!?” Amity heard someone scream from down one of the passageways containing the first deck cabins.

Amity stopped, concerned at the intensity of the shout.  _ “What is that all about?” _ she asked herself as she looked down the nearby passageways.

For a decent time, there were no more shouts, so Amity shrugged it off and went back on her way. However, as soon as she began walking, another shout could be heard. “I don’t want your excuses, I want you to do things right the first time!”

Now Amity knew who it was, as she was closer to the confrontation. It was Boscha.  _ ”She must be yelling at one of the Stewards. I know she doesn’t like them but this is a bit much,” _ Amity thought as she made her way down a passageway that led toward the sound of the shouting.

Eventually, she saw Boscha, Skara, and a Steward who appeared to be Willow - for unlike Boscha and Skara, Amity actually bothered to learn the names of the Stewards that they interacted with the most - in front of one of the cabin doors. It was Boscha’s cabin if Amity remembered correctly, which she did.

Willow was on her knees, appearing to have been shoved, most likely by Boscha.

“I apologize profusely for not doing it the way you like ma’am, but I have other duties to attend to and I can’t get it right every time,” Willow said, clearly on the brink of tears.

“As I already said,” Boscha said, her voice displaying her quickly inflating anger, “I don’t. Want. Excuses!” Boscha raised a hand, clearly intending to strike Willow. Hard.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz was having a great day. She had an excellent night of rest, and her whole day was planned to have quality time with Amity in their secret lounge.

While she was disappointed that their date ended so suddenly the day before thanks to the Blight twins, she had a lot of fun with Amity.  Constant blushing and awkward tension included. 

Luz was making her way to the secret lounge, having just finished her breakfast up on the weather deck. Not many people did much on the weather deck, but Luz always enjoyed the near-constant breeze that could be found from being out in the open a good distance above the ground regardless of if the ship was in the air or not.

As she passed the first-floor landing of the staircase she was taking, she heard a shout from a hallway.

“I don’t want your excuses. I want you to do things right the first time!”

_ “That doesn’t sound good. I should go check it out,” _ Luz thought to herself as she made her way through some passageways searching for the source of the voice.

As she rounded a corner in front of her, she heard another shout. “I don’t. Want. Excuses!” Upon rounding the corner, she saw Boscha, Skara, and Willow all in front of one of the cabin doors. Willow was on her knees, clearly having been pushed into that position, and Boscha had an arm raised, clearly ready to strike Willow. Luz made to intercept the strike, however, a figure beat her to it, grabbing Boscha’s arm.

“That’s enough, Boscha!” Amity said harshly as she threw Boscha’s arm to the side. “You will stop this at once,” Amity continued, moving to help Willow to her feet.

Luz slid back around the corner, not entirely processing what was happening now that the short adrenaline rush that came from the thought  _ “protect Willow” _ was over. She did, however, peek around and watch what happened next.

“Amity?” Boscha asked, shocked, and exasperated. “You have no right to...”

Amity cut her off. “I have every right to do this. Regardless of how cruel you’re being, Willow is a paid employee of the C.C.L. and I will  _ NOT _ tolerate the mistreatment of my family’s employees.”

“But...but...but she...” Boscha tried to speak but was once again cut off by Amity.

“But nothing, Boscha. Be grateful that I’m not bringing this issue up to my father, for I know he does not tolerate this kind of treatment of his employees, and as such he would not be happy to find the daughter of a business partner doing such,” Amity said once Willow was back on her feet.

“Come with me, Ms. Park, you are no longer assigned to serve Ms. Frommholz,” Amity told her as she guided Willow away from Boscha and Skara.

Boscha, still exasperated by what was happening, called after them, “You can’t do this, Amity. You have no right!”

“Watch me,” was all Amity said in response as she and Willow rounded a corner.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After watching the exchange, Luz jogged back over towards the staircase to make sure that Boscha and Skara didn’t see her sneaking nearby.

_ “Wow,” _ was all Luz could think as she processed the exchange.

Luz’s heart had been beating furiously throughout the exchange. Before her father left her and her mother to fend for their own, he had on occasion been extremely abusive. Luz, ever the bright bundle of joy, never realized what was going on until her mother finally explained everything. Ever since Luz has despised any kind of violence and didn’t do well with goodbyes. In some cases, she had even been known to start fights just to protect people from their abusers. As such, if it wasn’t for the fact that Amity had been there, she most likely would have broken Boscha’s arm, consequences be damned.

Amity had used her influence to stop Willow’s mistreatment. She made sure that Boscha would stop tormenting Willow for baseless reasons. 

Luz and Willow had tried to talk to Chief Bump about Boscha’s mistreatment of Willow, but he kept waving away their concerns, saying that Boscha was a Frommholz and wouldn’t behave in such a despicable manner.

Now it was all over. A least for the time being.

_ “I’ll have to thank Amity when I see her later. Better get going!” _ she thought as she began to make her way back down the stairs and to the secret lounge.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After having walked to a staircase together, Willow realized that Amity wasn’t going to stop leading her wherever it was they were going.

“You didn’t have to do that for me,” Willow said defeatedly. “I’m used to being treated like that.”

“Shut up,” Amity snapped, a little more harshly than she meant to.

Willow was taken aback. “I’m…I’m sorry, what did you say?” Some anger grew within Willow. Of course, her being saved was just a power move Amity was making over Boscha and Skara.

“I said shut up,” Amity answered, however this time she elaborated, “Nobody should be treated like that, regardless of if they're used to it.”

Willow was still skeptical, though her anger had stopped growing.  _ “Maybe she really did just want to help?” _ Willow thought.

“Where are we going?” Willow asked as they made it to the fifth deck.

“To talk with Chief Bump,” Amity said, not caring to elaborate as to why.

Willow started to freak out a little.  _ “Oh no, it really all was just an act. She’s gonna get me in trouble!” _

“That...That’s okay. No harm was done, I’ll just go about my duties,” Willow said, trying to pull away from Amity.

Amity’s hold on her tightened. “Nonsense, I’m going to keep my word and make sure that you don’t have to serve her anymore.”

Willow couldn’t believe what she just heard. She stopped walking, which forced Amity to stop as well.

“Willow? What’s wrong?” Amity asked with concern.

“You’re really doing this, aren’t you?” Willow asked, still baffled by the situation.

Amity started to understand why Willow was so hesitant. After who knows how long of constantly getting mistreated by rich passengers who think they’re better than everyone else, the daughter of one of those types of people was now helping her get out of the situation.

Amity gave Willow a soft smile. “Yes, I am really doing this. You won’t have to deal with Boscha or Skara again. At least if I can help it.”

Willow, overtaken by her happiness, hugged Amity tightly. “Thank you,” she said while trying to stifle tears that threatened to spill. “Thank you so much, Amity.”

Amity returned the hug. “Your welcome, Willow. But, we’re not in the clear yet. Let’s go talk with Chief Bump and get this taken care of officially, okay?”

Willow nodded her head as she broke the hug with Amity and steeled her resolve. “Yes, let’s go talk with the Chief,” she said, a confident gleam in her eye.

Amity smiled at seeing Willow this confident and finished leading the way to Chief Bump’s station.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz was going crazy while alone in the secret lounge. Having seen Amity save Willow and make those promises gave her too much energy and couldn't wait for Amity to get there so she could ask if she really got Willow out of her situation dealing with Boscha.

Luz had tried to calm herself down by reading a book, then listening to music, then playing solitaire, but she barely managed to start those activities, let alone finish them. If she was stuck in the lounge alone for much longer, she was going to explode.

Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to find out what exploding felt like as Amity chose that moment to enter the secret lounge.

“Hey, Luz! Sorry I took so long to get here, I had something to take care- OOF!” Amity grunted as Luz wrapped her up into a tight hug.

“That was amazing what you did, Amity! I can’t believe you stood up for her like that. So were you able to do what you said you could? Did you? Did you!?” Luz bombarded Amity with barely contained excitement.

As Amity managed to free herself from Luz’s hug, she was confused by the girl’s excitement. “What are you talking about Luz? What did I do exactly?” Amity asked in confusion.

“Oh right! I guess I was hiding so you wouldn’t have seen me.” She scratched the back of her neck and forced a laugh. “I saw you on the first deck standing up for Willow. It was amazing! Plus you said that you’d reassign her so she wouldn’t have to deal with Boscha anymore. Were you really able to do that?”

Now that Amity understood what Luz was talking about, a blush grew on her cheeks.  _ “She saw me do that and thought I was amazing? She thought I was amazing!” _ Amity thought as she brought herself back under control. Once she was calm enough to continue, she told Luz what had happened after the confrontation.

Amity told Luz about how after the confrontation, they went straight to Chief Bump’s station and had a talk with him. First, Amity had informed him about the mistreatment Willow had been under. She also made it clear to the Chief that it was not Willow or his own fault, but it was the inexcusable fault of Boscha that had created the situation, as she used her status to do so. With this cleared, Amity told the Chief that she would not allow Willow to serve Boscha any longer, and made sure that a more senior steward would serve Boscha instead to keep her out of trouble. Additionally, word of Boscha’s behavior was not to leave the small group that knew about it for if word got out to Boscha or Amity’s fathers, there would be a heavy price to pay.

Luz listened with rapt attention. Once Amity finished her story, she hugged her tight once again. “Thank you so much Amity. This means a lot to me too,” Luz said through tears that threatened to spill.

Amity hugged Luz back, and they both stood there in a hug for a time until Luz was ready to let go. Once they did, Amity asked, “So what did you want to do today?”

With the question out there, Luz went off about different things they could do, and the two settled in for a day of relatively calming activities and enjoyment of the privacy the secret lounge afforded the two.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emira knocked on the door to the cabin she and her twin had been standing in front of for the last minute or two.

“Come in,” Alador said from inside the cabin.

Emira and Edric opened the door and stood at attention in front of the small desk where their father was sitting.

Alador took off his glasses and placed them on his desk. He stood, lacing his hands behind his back, and moved to stand in front of the room’s window.

“I’ve just been informed by a representative of the Inspection Team that The Hexus has been cleared to continue flying,” Alador said with a hint of pride in his voice.

Emira and Edric, both having had a conversation like this with their father before, knew exactly what to say.

“Congratulations father. That is excellent news,” the twins said in unison.

Alador looked at the twins over his shoulder, sensing their slight disinterest in the news, however, he did not comment on it.

“Yes, it is,” he continued. “And now that the ship has been cleared, I’m going to be leaving for a time to deal with some business. I’ll be meeting up with the ship in Paris.”

Alador moved back to the desk and turned two files towards the twins.

“As you already know, the two of you will be staying with the ship to work as helmsman. I’ve called you both here to inform you of the other reason you are staying with the ship,” Alador continued mysteriously.

Emira and Edric gave each other a quick glance out of the corner of their eyes. It was rare for their father to hide details pertaining to assignments he gave them.

“As you two should also know, The Hexus will be completing several circumnavigations of the globe over the course of the coming year. I have a big decision to make at the end of the first circumnavigation,” Alador said as he turned to face the twins square on.

“Come the end of the first circumnavigation, I will be naming the next heir to the Blight fortune and the Coven Cruise Line.” Alador paused as he let the twins take in this news.

The twins each had their own minor panic.  _ “Holy crap, he’s going to be naming an heir!?” _

“As you two are my eldest children, you are each equally in line for the title. The purpose of having you two both serve as helmsman is to test you each to see who is the more competent airmen, or in your case, Emira, airwomen,” Alador continued after a moment. “It is a tradition among Cruise Lines to ensure that the next heir can complete all duties associated with running the Cruise Line, from administration work to ship-board duties.”

“I intend to name one of you the heir, come the end of the circumnavigation-” Alador paused.

_ “Goddammit.” _ Edric and Emira each thought respectively, for neither wished to be named heir.

“-however you are not my only options.” Alador finished.

This final condition caused Emira and Edric to each stand slightly taller and pay more attention.

“While it is tradition for one of you to become the heir, there is still Amity to consider. She has proven herself very competent in matters of the company and airships. So while this meeting serves to make you aware of my intended plans, it will also make you aware of my alternative plans.”

Neither Emira nor Edric liked where this was going.

“If neither of you makes the cut to be my heir, I will pass the mantle to Amity instead,” Alador stated menacingly.

Emira and Edric both mentally recoiled from what was just said. Yes, they both teased Amity constantly and they didn’t have the best sibling relationship, however, they loved their sister, and they both knew that Amity  _ hated _ the Cruise Line and would rather die before becoming the heir.

“Do you both understand what’s at stake?” Alador asked his eldest children.

“Yes,” they both said in perfect unison.

At the same moment, Emira and Edric steeled their resolves. Both would much rather live a life of captaining their own airships and sailing through the skies without a care in the world. However now, that was most definitely not the case now. They both had to do their part to keep Amity from becoming the heir, and to ensure that one of them became the heir.

In each of their minds, they made their own separate goals to do what they could to come out on top of the other. A thought that neither ever expected themselves to have, for while they loved their sister, they loved each other just as much, and wanted to see the other as happy as they could be.

_ “If that means sacrificing my own dreams, then so be it,” _ each twin thought.

“Excellent,” Alador said as he turned away from the twins. “Then you are both free to leave.”

Despite the fact their father was not looking at them, each twin bowed, as was expected of them, and turned to leave. As they closed the door to the cabin, they each respectively closed the door on their dreams of being the captain of an airship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) , and [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for beta reading the chapter.


	7. Enjoying The Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes about some normal everyday ship business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing too exciting to note for today. I love responding to your guys’ comments and sharing in the hype for the story, so keep the comments coming! 
> 
> One story related point would have to be about the twins. Remember that they have a history with the CCL and employees of the CCL. So if some things might seem to be happening too fast, just remember that we are only recently joining the story, not at the start of it all.

Almost as soon as the International Inspection Teams finished inspecting the ship, The Hexus took off en-route to Berlin. While this wasn’t a tradition, it was considered respectful to make Berlin one of the first couple destinations for an inaugural flight as Berlin was not only where the first Airship was made, but it was where the L.G.S. system was invented and demonstrated. Without the great German minds that can be found in Berlin, Airships would never have become what they are today.

Amity, Emira, and Edric were eating lunch together in the Main Dining Hall on the Fourth Deck. Emira and Edric had suggested the idea and while Amity didn’t exactly want to deal with the twins, they hadn’t been seen eating together as loving siblings in a while, so it was their duty to do so to keep up their family’s image. Not that Amity didn’t love her siblings, but they could be really exhausting to deal with, especially when they put effort into it.

“So Amity, how was your ‘book’ the other day? Didn’t you say you were going to finish your reading?” Emira smirked mischievously as she asked through a mouthful of fish and chips.

“Yeah, we were surprised when we saw you off-ship the other day. Finished it sooner than you expected I guess?” Edric added as he cut into his chicken parm.

Amity coughed at the sudden shift in topic, choking slightly on her caesar salad. “Yes, I happened to finish it early and at that time Luz still needed someone to give her a tour of the city. So, I obliged her,” Amity answered, hoping that such a perfect response would make the twins lose their interest.

The twins didn’t lose interest.

“Mhmm,” Emira hummed between bites. “You wouldn’t have happened to finish sooner than expected  _ because _ Luz was looking for a tour guide now would you?”

Amity began to blush a bit. “Of course not. I’m simply a fast reader.”

Edric raised an eyebrow at the response. “Oh? Then how come when we offer to do things with you and you have to ‘read’ it usually takes you all day to get said reading done?”

Emira gave Edric a look that said “Oh! Nice touch~.”

Amity’s blush had now solidified on her cheeks. “Well... that’s because… uh, I usually have more reading to get done. But as I said, I was simply finishing one of my books, so there wasn’t as much to read.”

Edric and Emira both looked at each other, nodded, then looked around the room. As they were eating a late lunch, not many people were in the Main Dining Hall. Those that were in the room were a good distance away from the sibling’s table. This gave Edric and Emira the chance to completely change tactics.

“Oh come-on Mittens, we know you went on a date with Luz. Tell us how it went!” Edric said first, followed quickly by Emira. “Yeah, we want to know everything!”

Amity was taken aback by the sudden shift of the twin’s behavior and the topic of their questioning. She stared back at them open-mouthed, trying to find words as she processed what they were getting at.

“Alright fine. I was on a date with Luz.” Saying this aloud caused Amity’s blush to deepen. “But I’m not telling you two anything. It’ll just make you more unbearable.” Amity finished with a decisive humph.

“Awe come-on, Amity. Pleeeeease??” the twins begged together. “We promise not to tell anyone.”

“It’s not you telling anyone I’m worried about, it's what the two of you specifically will do with the information,” Amity said with a roll of her eyes at her sibling’s antics.

“What if we promise not to do anything? We’ll promise on The Bond,” Edric said on behalf of the two of them.

Amity almost denied them again, but it was what the promise would be held to that got her attention. One of the few things the three of them knew that they could rely on without question was their bond as siblings, which they referred to as The Bond. They may not get along, they may annoy each other, and it may not look like they enjoy the other’s presence, but they were still siblings under the same household. They all had the same rules to follow, the same expectations to uphold, and the same image to project. So while they may not always like each other, their bond as loving siblings has held strong and true for years. This made the fact that the twins would promise not to do anything on The Bond quite substantial.

“You’d really promise on The Bond not to do anything?” Amity asked tentatively.

“Yes,” the twins each said at the same time, a very serious look now plastered on their faces.

Amity took a moment to study their faces. The three siblings had become good at faking faces as it was needed to uphold the family’s image. However, this also meant that they had become good at reading other people’s faces to see if their expressed emotions were real or not. So, Amity studied every feature of their faces. Their jawlines, their eyebrows, their cheeks, and most importantly their eyes. After checking each of their faces, Amity strongly believed that the two were telling the truth and honestly would not do anything with the knowledge from the date.

“Alright I’ll tell you about the date.” She sighed, almost in defeat before adding another condition. “However, we are going to talk about it in one of our cabins. I don’t want the wrong ears hearing about this and ruining things if they manage to tell Mom or Dad. Alright?”

The twins nodded enthusiastically and hugged their sister. Amity sighed again.“Alright, alright, I love you, too. Now let's go. The sooner I get this over with the sooner I won’t have to deal with you two anymore.”

The three siblings got up from their table and made their way to one of their cabins where Amity talked about what happened during the date. The twins took in every word with rapt attention. However, on their way to the cabin, the siblings looked at each other, and each held up the crossed fingers that had been behind their backs when promising not to do anything with the information. What could they say? They were the  _ mischievous _ Blight twins after all.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, done. What do you think, King?” Luz asked as she looked to her right at the Engine Room’s second in command.

“Hmm...” King hummed as he looked over Luz’s work, “Yup! Should be ready to go. Go open the valve,” he said, pointing to the aforementioned valve.

“Okay!” Luz said cheerfully as she got up and went to the valve. “On my mark, steam through generator line 3 will be opened. Roger, Eda?” Luz called.

“Roger, kid,” Eda called back with slight disinterest. Luz always was a stickler for protocol.

Luz opened the valve, letting steam flow through the pipe. Back where King was, a short jet of steam burst through a seam in the pipe. It was very short, and to most, it would cause them to jump in surprise at the most. King, on the other hand, reacted rather extremely.

“AHHH!” King yelled in an extremely high pitch, falling backwards away from the pipe.

After his scream, it was dead silent in the Engine Room for a moment. Then, everyone but King erupted into laughter.

“King, what was that!?” Luz asked as she bent over from her laughter. “You sounded like a little girl getting scared on Halloween!”

This comment only served to make everyone start laughing even harder.

King, on the other hand, stood up with his arms crossed and a deep blush on his cheeks. “Well, you know, the steam scared me a little.”

“A little? I wouldn’t be surprised if you just soiled yourself!” Viney said next, causing more laughter to erupt.

“Well, I’ll have you know that I didn’t in fact soil myself,” King said, angry at the fact that everyone was laughing at him. After another minute or two of continued laughter, King had had enough. “Alright, I get it! I scream like a girl. It’s not  _ that _ funny.”

At this, the rest of those in the engine room started to feel a little bad about how long they had been laughing and brought it under control with a couple of deep breaths and long sighs.

“Sorry, King,” Luz said first with an echoed chorus of the same remark from the others. “I, at least, haven’t heard you scream like that before.”

“Yeah, that unfortunate scream has been with him for a while,” Eda called. “Back at the Academy, he earned the nickname Princess because of it.”

“I can see why,” Viney said, “If I heard someone screaming like that, I’d think a girl had just been assaulted or something.”

“Well, people have assumed that before. I’ve had to explain to the police that I myself was the one screaming and not in fact a non-existent girl that I didn’t assault more than once. After the third time, you get pretty good at it.” King said, almost proud of himself for how good he got at explaining that oddly specific scenario.

“You’ve really had to do that before?” Luz asked, not entirely believing him.

“Yup! Eda can attest to that,” King said, making sure Eda heard him down at the main control board.

“You got that right,” Eda called. “I had to bail him out the first couple of times before he got good at the explanation.”

“That is, of course, if Eda wasn’t arrested the second she stepped inside the police station,” Viney said in a way meant for a whisper, but at a volume clearly meant to make sure Eda heard that.

“I heard that Vin!” Eda called, causing them all to giggle a bit before Eda called up again, this time back to business. “We’ve got a pressure spike in one of the L.G.S. retrieval pipes. Viney, you head to the L.G.S. speaking tubes. Luz, you head up to the weather deck and check that out.”

“On it!” the two girls responded at the same time.

As Viney went to the speaking tubes, Luz made her way towards and up a staircase, excited to get to work on her next task.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emira and Edric had a great opportunity. Until they landed in Berlin, neither of the two had any helmsman duties to attend to. So while they had bothered Amity the first day of the flight in order to get information about her date, the real fun came the next day. It was the day they could finally pull off a prank on the crew.

Emira was waiting in a custodial closet for Edric. “Ugh, what’s taking him so long?” she asked herself, quickly losing her patience.

There were two knocks, followed by a pause, followed by three more knocks on the door. The signal that Edric was finally back.

Emira opened the door for her brother and more or less dragged him into the room. “Well, it’s about time! What took you so long?”

“Sorry Em, the door was locked so I had to find a key,” Edric said apologetically.

“That’s not good. If that door was locked then Kikimora is on duty. We’ve gotta make sure we do this quickly. How much did you get?” Emira asked, inspecting what Edric was now holding out in front of him.

“A foot and a half. That should be enough right?” Edric asked as he held out the insulated wiring he was carrying.

“It’s perfect. Let’s go before Kikimora catches on to us!” Emira said, dragging her brother along behind her towards the front of the ship.

The twins decided that for their first prank, they should go more subtle. In the Radio Room were the controls for an intercom system spanning the crew only sections of the ship. It allowed for quick communication of incoming hazardous conditions so the crew was prepared and could calmly inform the passengers if needed.

For their prank to succeed, the two decided that they would set up the radio so that the next time Mr. Porter turns it on, a loud screeching will be sent through the intercom. While it wouldn’t cause anyone any harm, it would scare the hell out of everyone, which would be more than entertaining enough.

Emira and Edric were hidden around a corner just down the hall from the Radio Room, waiting for Mr. Porter to leave the room. At the same time every day, Mr. Porter left the room to grab a snack from the kitchens. It was something the twins noticed early on and made sure to note for their eventual pranks. Now the information was paying off.

The two watched as Mr. Porter left the room and headed towards the kitchen. Once they were sure he was gone, they sprang into action, running to the room and quickly hiding inside.

“Alright, just like we planned,” Emira said as she made her way to the radio equipment, beginning her task of wiring up the prank.

“Right,” Edric responded, keeping an eye on the hallway and watching out for Mr. Porter’s return, or the appearance of anyone else that they didn’t want finding them in there.

The two worked in silence for a time, until Emira cursed loud enough for Edric to hear.

“You alright?” Edric asked his sister, not letting his attention waver from the hallway.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just I can’t reach a stupid plug,” Emira responded in a strained voice as she kept trying to reach behind a bunch of equipment.

“Do you need my help?” Edric asked, finally looking away from the hallway.

“No, no, I’m fine. Just keep watching th- shit!” Emira suddenly shouted. “Alright yup I need your help, quick or this isn’t going to work.”

Edric jumped to action and helped his sister pick up the wire she almost dropped and plug it into the plug she was reaching for.

“Alright done,” Emira announced. “Now come on before anyone-!”

“Before anyone what, helmsman Emira?” a voice said from the doorway.

Emira and Edric both jumped slightly, startled by the voice before they both whispered to themselves.

“Oh, crap.”

The two turned and stood to attention as their fears were confirmed. Of all the outcomes that were possible from a failed prank attempt, this was the worst.

First Officer Kikimora had caught them.

“Do I need to repeat myself, helmsman?” Kikimora asked as she stood authoritatively in the doorway.

“No ma’am!” Emira answered as she gave Edric a quick glance who merely shrugged slightly. They were already caught, and they knew Kikimora would be able to see right through their lies, so why waste the effort doing so?

“We were saying that we had to go before anyone found us in here,” Emira said, perfectly understanding what her brother’s shrug meant.

“Mhmm,” Kikimora hummed, “and why did you not want anyone finding the two of you in here?” 

“We were attempting to rig up the intercom system so that when the radio was next turned on, a loud annoying noise would be played,” Emira answered, her and her brother now crossing the point of no return, for there was no way they weren’t going to be punished.

“I see. Well, why don’t the two of you start fixing the equipment while I go inform the Captain? Mr. Porter, please ensure that these two fix the equipment properly,” Kikimora stated firmly as she turned to leave the room, being replaced by Mr. Porter, wearing a disappointed look.

“Did you know the other senior officers were taking bets on how long you’d last before trying to pull off a prank? And here you are barely a week after lift-off.” Mr. Porter sighed, “Well get going you two. We don’t want to make Kikimora even more upset.”

Emira and Edric turned back towards the equipment and defeatedly began working on fixing what they’ve done. Throughout the process, however, their minds were on a different matter.

Why was Mr. Porter’s disappointment so much more upsetting than having gotten caught by Kikimora?

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Lilith knew this was bound to happen at some point. Having been employed by the C.C.L. for as long as she had, Emira and Edric’s pranks had become fairly commonplace in her life, hence why she made sure that the senior staff were keeping their eyes on the mischievous twins.

“At least they made it a week,” Lilith sighed almost defeatedly.

She opened the door to the Radio Room to find Emira and Edric sitting in some chairs, their heads hanging low, while Mr. Porter was checking his equipment to ensure that the radio had been repaired properly.

“Is everything as it should be, Mr. Porter?” Lilith addressed the ship’s Radioman.

“Ah! Yes, ma’am, everything’s shipshape,” Mr. Porter responded, slightly startled by the Captain’s unannounced arrival.

“Excellent. Would you mind giving me a minute with our two Helmsman here?” Lilith asked, gesturing to the twins.

“Of course! I’ll wait just outside,” Mr. Porter answered as he made his way towards the door.

Lilith waited until Mr. Porter had left before addressing the twins. She did note, however, that the twins seemed more defeated than usual when one of their schemes were foiled.

“I’ll be honest, my original intention was to yell at the both of you for trying to cause mischief on my ship,” Lilith said as she moved to sit at one of the other chairs in the room, “However based on the expressions you both are wearing, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

The three sat in silence. Lilith expected one of them to say something “secretly” snarky, yet it never came. They just continued to look down and away from her. Lilith smiled warmly at the two young helmsman.

“Look up you two. I won’t make you look at me directly, but at least lookup,” Lilith instructed.

The twins did as they were asked and looked up and towards Lilith. However, they purposefully avoided making any sort of eye contact.

“Do either of you want to take a stab at why you feel so disgusted with yourselves or should I do it for you?” Lilith asked, looking at each twin in turn.

Again, silence from both of them.

“Alright,” Lilith sighed knowingly, “You feel like this because the two of you are finally part of the crew.”

This made the twins look to her with questioning glances. Edric was the one to finally break their silence.

“What do you mean? We’ve been part of the crew since before Lift-off,” Edric asked questioningly.

“Well, on paper you were a part of the crew, but now the two of you have actually served with your fellow crewmates. You’ve grown closer to them, laughed with them, and complained about your duties with them, among plenty of other things. In short, you’ve made a connection with the rest of the crew.”

Edric and Emira looked to each other to see if the other understood what Lilith was talking about, but each looked just as confused. This time Emira spoke up.

“What do you mean by connection?” Emira asked.

Lilith’s smile grew, and she shook her head slightly before continuing.

“It's hard to put into words, but it's your relationship with the crew. You’re learning to trust each other, you’re making friends, you’re having fights, and you’re becoming a part of the family.” Lilith said in her best “teacher” voice.

The silence and growing confusion on the twin’s face were enough for her to know she needed to continue.

“Since the first sailing ships, the crew of a ship is stuck with each other for days, to weeks, to months, and sometimes to years. Throughout the time you spend together, you grow into a kind of family. You have the members you love to hang out with, the ones you can’t stand, and the ones you want to make proud of your work. The longer a crew is together, the deeper these connections and relationships go. That is part of the reason that I, and many other ship captains, keep a good portion of the crew from our previous ship when being promoted or re-assigned. The crew knows how I expect the ship to be run, and they know that they can trust me to take care of them and the ship without any major problems. Now let me guess, Mr. Porter looked disappointed in the two of you when he came to help fix the radio right?” Lilith paused after she asked this question, clearly waiting for the twins’ answer.

“Yes…” the two responded, just barely above a whisper.

“And that’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Lilith continued. “Mr. Porter, and I’m sure other senior staff like him, expect certain work to come from the two of you. When you let him down, he was disappointed in you. This disappointment led to your current feelings of failure. You don’t want to let him and the others down, because you’ve grown to respect and appreciate them, whether you noticed it happening or not.”

Lilith paused her lecture, letting what she just told the twins really sink in.

“So then, does that mean we aren’t going to like the results of our pranks anymore?” Edric asked honestly.

“Ed!?” Emira shouted in shock and anger at the fact her brother just admitted to the fact they wanted to pull more pranks.

“What!?” Edric shouted back. “Come on Em, she knows we’re going to try and pull more pranks on the crew. What’s the point if this is how we feel every time we try to pull one off?”

Emira opened her mouth to answer, although she simply looked away, as that was where her thoughts were going as well.

The twins were startled when Lilith chuckled slightly, a sound they had never heard before, rather than getting mad at them for already having other pranks planned out.

“You can still get the enjoyment you have from pranks, but you can’t do them to the extent you would usually. Instead of pranking the whole crew, you prank a specific crewmember. That is part of your growing relationships. The crew will come to expect certain kinds of pranks from you, and you will learn who actually hates the pranks, who secretly enjoys the pranks, and who straight up enjoys the pranks and enthusiastically encourages them.” Lilith stated as if she has had experience with this before.

“So, you’re okay with us pulling more pranks?” Emira asked cautiously.

“Well, I would prefer that you didn’t pull pranks,” Lilith sighed before she continued. “However, that is my opinion as the Captain of this ship. In reality, I know that you aren’t going to stop. Which means, I encourage you to grow your relationships with the crew and find the members who would appreciate the pranks. Find the crewmates that would help you set up the pranks for more effect. Find the friends that, at the end of the day, enjoy your pranks to the point that it inspires them to prank you back.”

Emira and Edric looked at each other again and had their silent communication that only twins could have.

_ “Be the victims of our style of pranks? That could really happen?” _

When Emira and Edric looked back to Lilith, she noticed a new fire in their eyes, as they finally made eye contact.

“We can do that,” both twins said with a strong resolve, clearly displaying that they took her words to heart.

Lilith didn’t entirely like the fire in their eyes, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep them from trying to pull pranks for the entire year-long journey. It’s better that they come up with a manageable pranking arrangement now rather than down the line when it's too late.

“Excellent. Now, as punishment for trying to pull off this prank and messing with Mr. Porter’s equipment, you are both to clean all of the crew lavatories. Is that clear?” Lilith asked, now with her usual air of authority as the ships’ Captain.

The twins jumped up from their seats and stood at attention.

“Yes ma’am!” They both announced in unison.

“You are dismissed,” Lilith stated, nodding to them to indicate they are clear to go about their duties.

The twins saluted in unison and left the room to begin their punishment, however, a smile was on both of their faces.

As Lilith left the Radio Room, she was confronted by Kikimora who was leaning against the wall next to the door.

“Was that wise Captain Lilith?” Kikimora asked, “This could lead to a lot of trouble.”

“I know the risks Ms. Kikimora.” Lilith answered, “But it’s better to encourage their antics in a somewhat controlled manner rather than to attempt to punish their antics in an uncontrolled setting.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You can’t go there,” Amity said guidingly, “only forward two, remember?”

“Ugh, this is impossible! Why are we playing this again?” Luz whined as she set her chin on the table and began to pout.

Amity chuckled, sparing herself a moment once again to let a slight blush grow on her cheeks and admire how cute the girl in front of her could be.

“We’re playing because you said you wanted to learn  _ how _ to play,” Amity answered the question, even though she knew Luz already knew the answer. “Do you want to stop?”

“Noooo,” Luz drawled as she sat back up. “I’m going to finish at least one game.”

With Luz’s mind made up, the two sat in silence as Luz looked over the board. She reached out for her pawn and attempted to move it forward. She first moved it 4 spaces before Amity involuntarily scrunched up her face, displaying that that was not a valid move. When Luz moved it only two and Amity’s face went back to normal, she placed the piece down, satisfied with herself.

“There, now it's your turn,” Luz said as she crossed her arms, satisfied with her move.

After Luz successfully moved her pawn, the game continued without much interruption, with Amity subtly giving hints as to what moves Luz could or couldn’t make.

One and a half minutes later, the game was over.

“Checkmate,” Amity stated, moving her bishop into position.

Luz, however, unfamiliar with common chess terms, began to move another piece.

“No, Luz, you can’t do that. I’ve won the game,” Amity said informatively, moving her piece back to where it was.

“What do you mean you’ve won? I still have pieces!” Luz shouted defensively.

“You may still have pieces, but you don’t have anywhere safe to move. Checkmate means that no matter where you move your king, you would still be in danger from one of my other pieces. Thus, you have lost,” Amity explained calmly, although she was grinning from Luz’s obvious build-up of denial.

“No, but I can still move my king! Just because you  _ might _ be able to take it doesn’t mean you’ve won yet,” Luz said, desperately trying to keep the game from being over, resulting in her defeat.

“There isn’t any “might” Luz. I  _ am going _ to take your king regardless of where you move it. The game is over,” Amity refuted, moving to set the pieces up for another game.

“Girlwhojustlostthegamesayswhat?” Luz said quietly and very quickly under her breath.

“What?” Amity said, caught off guard by the quick mumbling.

“Ha! Girl who just lost the game said “what,” so I'm the winner~!” Luz sang as she jumped up from her chair and began skipping around the table.

“I am the winner~, I am the winner~,” Luz sang teasingly as she skipped.

Amity blushed as a result of her mixture of anger and adoration toward Luz’s child-like behavior.

“Luz, that is not how this works!” Amity said, her adoration for Luz making her words sound much less threatening than she wanted them to.

“Amity is a sore loser, Amity is a sore loser~!” Luz altered her song as she continued to skip around the table, looking pointedly at Amity and occasionally sticking her tongue out at her.

Amity stood up quickly from her chair. “Luz Noceda, you stop that right now!” Amity demanded, yet once again the words sounded much less threateningly than she had meant them to.

“You’re going to have to catch me first, Blight!” Luz said, playfully sticking her tongue out at Amity.

“Oh, it’s on Noceda!” Amity said as she began to chase Luz.

The two ran around the lounge with Amity attempting to catch Luz. Pillows were thrown, chairs were knocked over, and laughter echoed through the lounge as the two let themselves enjoy the ridiculousness of the moment.

Eventually, Amity successfully caught Luz by the arm and spun her around to face her. However as their moment had not been halted, Luz tripped in her sudden and unexpected need to run backward, and the two fell onto the couch.

They both let their laughter devolve into giggling as they caught their breath. It wasn’t long until their newly caught breath got caught in their throats instead.

Amity was essentially pinning Luz down to the couch.

It wasn’t obvious as the two had unceremoniously fallen onto the couch, however now that the adrenaline from their goofy game of catch had worn off, the two blushed fiercely as they took in how close they were to each other. Especially how close their faces were to each other.

As had almost become a tradition for the two, they began to stare into each other’s eyes. As had also almost become tradition, they each felt what they usually did when looking into each other’s eyes. The old bookshelf and the ever softening candy.

This time, however, things were different.

An underlying feeling was beginning to haze the mental image each girl saw in the other. Not to obscure the view, but to provide the need for clarity as one with bad eyesight gains when putting on glasses. Everything could still be seen, but there was now another condition, so to speak, in order to properly view what was before them.

A film of desire was beginning to haze the images found in each other’s eyes.

Both girls stared deeper than they normally would, attempting to discover what the haze was, and more importantly what the haze meant. Eventually, their physical exhaustion caught up with them, and Amity could no longer hold herself up.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts of what this new haze meant, Amity got up off of Luz, holding out a hand for her.

“Sorry about that,” Amity said with slight nerves from the intimacy of their previous position, “I guess I probably should have stopped you before spinning you around.”

“Oh don’t worry about it. Doing things like that just makes everything more fun.” Luz said as she stood with Amity’s help, giving her a playful wink.

Amity’s mind short-circuited for a moment before she looked around the room. “We should probably clean up this mess a little bit.”

“Yeah, that would be smart,” Luz said as she too surveyed the room. “When we’re done, maybe another game of chess?”

“Only if you accept your inevitable loss,” Amity teased.

“I don’t know what you're talking about,” Luz responded as she stuck up her chin and turned abruptly, causing both girls to giggle before they set about their task of cleaning up the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) for beta reading the chapter.
> 
> P.S. Is that an updated chapter count I see? 👀


	8. The Perfect Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity decides to get a special someone a gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey All! If you haven’t seen it already, I wrote some one-shots before finishing this chapter because I had lost some inspiration and needed to get the ideas out of my head so I could focus on “Luck Of The Sky” properly. Considering how long ago the first one-shot came out before this chapter did, I certainly hope you guys did see it. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, and Happy 2021!

Captain Lilith despised strong winds. It’s not as though this wasn’t a sentiment shared by many airship captains, however, Lilith placed strong winds at the top of the list. Winds could be dealt with in the sky, as all you had to do was account for how much they were blowing you off course.

Winds on the ground were another matter.

Debris could be flung into the ship, a sudden gust could whip the handling ropes from the handlers on the ground, and worst of all, Birds couldn’t keep their distance from the airship as well as usual.

As the ship made its way into Berling, strong winds had delayed the ship's arrival until well past sunset. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, as her crew was used to night landings. However, the strong winds had not ceased. If anything, they had grown stronger as they approached the landing field.

Thankfully, all landing fields were equipped with numerous floodlights so it would be easy for them to see what they were doing. The problem, once again, lied with the winds.

“Alright helmsman, being your left turn. Keep an eye on your speed and apply engine power as needed.” Lilith commanded in a calm voice, for the calmer she sounded, the more confident her crew would be in dealing with their current situation.

“Aye, ma’am,” Edric responded from his post at the ship's main wheel. He had been called in to relieve Emira as she was exhausted from fighting the winds since they began a dozen or so miles outside of the city.

The ship began to turn fairly quickly as up until this point they had been facing the winds. While this put a strain on the engines, it allowed for easier maneuvering.

As soon as the ship turned its side to the wind, it began to drift further to the left from the push and Edric quickly adjusted his steering, along with the engine power, in order to ensure the ship wouldn’t be pushed too far of course.

The turn went smoothly, for the most part, and Edric had successfully aligned themselves with their designated landing zone.

“Alright nice work, Edric. Elevator, set elevators to...” Lilith began her next order but was cut off.

“Flock of birds at 11 o’clock! Brace for strike!” Edric shouted, ensuring that he was heard by all of the bridge crew.

Moments later, dozens of birds crashed into the Bridge’s main window along with other portions of the ship.

“Mr. Porter, relay the strike to the engine room and have them watch for pressure drops to the LGS and forward port guide engine. Helmsman, do you still have control?” Lilith commanded urgently, for if something went wrong this close to the ground, things could get worse quickly.

Edric conducted a series of tests on the main wheel and engine controls. Things appeared to be working as expected, but there was a lot of drift to the left.

“Controls are fine, however, I’m getting drift to the left. I think the forward port engine is inoperable,” Edric responded with a grunt as he attempted to fight against the lack of engine power and strong winds.

“Mr. Porter, send word to shut down both forward guide engines. Elevator, what is our current altitude and level?” Lilith continued to give orders without hesitation, her many years of instinct having taken over the second the first bird struck the ship.

“Current altitude is 213 feet. Negative pitch is increasing slowly by the second. About .2% each second.” the elevator responded.

“Engine room confirms forward LGS on both balloons is losing pressure.” Mr. Porter added.

_ “Damn it! That’s much less altitude than I’d like us to have. Still, it can be done if we switch masts,” _ Lilith thought as she processed the information the elevator and Mr. Porter had just relayed.

“Mr. Porter, inform the ground we’re going to be landing at speeds above regulation and we’re heading for mast 4, or else we won’t be able to make it to any mast. Elevator, get the ship level then match the forward LGS loss in the rear. Helmsman, increase speed to a full third and keep us from drifting too much otherwise we’ll take more damage when we land. Understood?”

“Aye!” the three responded in unison and set about their tasks.

“Kikimora,” Lilith turned in her chair to address her First Officer, “inform the stewards that we’re in for a rough landing. If passengers ask, have the stewards tell them that we suffered a bird strike and had to rush our landing. Otherwise, everything is under control.”

“Yes, ma’am, right away,” Kikimora responded, turning to leave the bridge and find Chief Bump.

During the next couple of minutes, the bridge crew was tense as they set about their tasks and watched the mooring mast come closer, faster than it should have been. Eventually, as they reached the mast, the crew unconsciously braced as the ship hit the mast and the latch that kept them connected engaged automatically and as expected. With the mast connected, the ground crews quickly wheeled out supports to catch the ship and keep it from losing more altitude as the forward LGS was still losing pressure.

“Excellent landing everyone, despite the unfortunate circumstances, of course.” Lilith stood and smoothed out her uniform. “Lock your stations and get some rest. We have a good bit of work to get done tomorrow if we are going to stay on schedule.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity awoke to the sun shining through her cabin’s window. At first, she was annoyed by the inconvenience. She had been dreaming about Lu… a person that she deeply admired, and didn’t want it to end.

“ _ Stupid sun. Why can’t it go rise up in the north or something?” _

Amid her thoughts about how inconvenient the sun could be, she realized that something was wrong with how she was woken up.

_ “Wait a minute, the sun woke me up? But we’re in Berlin. The sun should be rising on the other side of the ship if we landed where we were supposed to.” _

A quick look outside confirmed what Amity suspected. Something during last night’s landing caused the ship to land at the wrong mooring mast, which meant that something must have gone wrong. Regardless, the ship was intact and they hadn’t been evacuated for safety, so everything more-or-less must have been fine.

_ “I’m sure I’ll find out about it from Luz in the lounge. She was working last night after all.” _

With her previous concerns now having a reasonable explanation, she settled for beginning her morning routine. She wore her usual attire, however this time her dress was green with purple accents along the seams. If it wasn’t for the darker hue of the green, the dress could have very easily had an ugly color scheme to it. Leave it to a professional designer to get things just right.

After she enjoyed a luxurious plate of fluffy blueberry pancakes for breakfast, she made her way down to the lounge to wait for Luz to show up. Unfortunately, a letter from Luz was already waiting.

\-------

_ Hey Amity! _

_ We had a pretty rough bird strike last night during our landing that damaged one of the front guide engines along with the forward LGS. Captain Lilith wants everything fixed by the time we’re supposed to leave tonight so that we can stay on schedule. Should be a piece of cake, but we’ll have to work all day to get it done. Won’t be able to hang out with you today... How about a slumber party instead? Oh, that would be so much fun! We could even raid the kitchens once dinner service is over.  _

_ -Luz _

\-------

Amity read the note as she sat down on the couch, smiling at how written words could sound so much like a person even when they aren’t being read out loud.

_ “I guess that explains why the ship isn’t at the correct mooring mast. Glad to know nothing serious happened,” _ she thought as she finished reading the note. “ _ Well, now what do I do?” _

For once in her life, Amity didn’t have another plan for how to spend her day. Usually, before she goes to bed, she plans for the next day’s events. This way, not a single moment is ever wasted and every minute is put to good use. For the past couple of days, that plan has been to either hang out with Luz in the lounge or read a book. She just recently finished a book and, in a shocking turn of events, didn’t really have the desire to start another one. 

Her current moment of reflection made her realize something rather important. 

“ _ I really have a best friend now. _ ”

Throughout her life, Amity had become “friends” with several people. However, this was in the strict definition of the word “friend.” Never before had she truly wanted to spend time with someone and was lost when they weren’t around.

_ “I should show her how much that means to me.” _

With her mind made up, Amity decided that she would find a present for Luz. Something that she could use to show her appreciation to the mystery engineer’s apprentice who suddenly had such a large effect on her life.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About an hour later, Amity found herself walking through one of the many busy streets of Berlin. Thankfully, the number of people was finally starting to trickle down as she made her way away from the touristy area of the city. As the area was closest to the Landing Field, dozens of gift shops and tourist traps lined the streets to allow visitors who didn’t have much time in the city to find the usual assortment of souvenirs that you could get in almost any city.

Souvenirs that could never hope to get across how important Luz was to Amity.

Eventually, Amity found herself in a small market square. There were still people who were  _ obviously _ tourists, but it was a trivial amount. Most of the market was home to small local shops that were the real places to visit if you wanted to find a meaningful gift.

Walking around the square, Amity looked at the displays of several of the shops. At each one, she took her time trying to decide if it would be something that Luz would enjoy. The first candidate that she found was a gift of Chocolate Covered Lebkuchen. As having been to Berlin before, she was familiar with the treat and enjoyed having some when she was in the City.

_ “She would probably go nuts for it, but I doubt it’d make it back to the ship. Let alone until she’s finished helping with repairs,” _ Amity thought with a mental sigh.

With the first candidate having been vetoed, Amity moved on to the next candidate. This next candidate being, of course, jewelry. Amity passed several shops that each had beautiful pieces, several of which she thought would fit Luz perfectly.

“ _ But would she wear it? She hasn’t come across as someone who would wear a necklace that often. Especially in her line of work,” _ Amity reasoned with herself.

Now that the second candidate had been rejected, she moved on to her third candidate. Third time’s the charm, right?

Boy, how right that saying is.

Amity was passing an alleyway, prepared to give up on the square she was in and find another one when out of the corner of her eye she saw a small sign hanging from a door.

**“PELLE MIA”**

However, it was the sign in the shop’s small display window that truly got her attention.

**“LEATHER CRAFTS - Wallets, Purses, Bags”**

She walked closer to the shop’s display to get a better look at what was inside. Almost immediately, her focus shifted to the messenger bag being displayed that was almost hidden behind the sign in the window. The bag's design was the same as any other messenger bag you could find. It was a square-ish shape, large enough to hold a number of things, with a long adjustable strap used to carry it.

What caught her eye was the color. 

The bag’s main color was a beautiful brown. But not just any brown, the brown of Luz’s eyes. As she continued to stare at the bag, she began to have that same feeling as when she stares into Luz’s eyes; the calm feeling of an old bookshelf, covered in old books with layers of dust to tell you just how long its been since someone bothered to pick up and read one of the books. To top it all off, on the main flap of the bag there was a black stripe that was covered in little explosions of color. They reminded her both of fireworks and of Luz’s near-constant, and occasionally spontaneous, energy.

_ “That’s a perfect gift for Luz!” _ Amity thought to herself and made her way into the shop to purchase the messenger bag.

The inside of the shop was quiet in the way that small local shops usually are. There weren’t any other customers at the moment, and behind the front desk sat a woman who, while you wouldn’t exactly consider old, wasn’t entirely middle-aged either. The woman, who Amity assumed was the shop’s owner, was reading a book and had a shawl wrapped over her shoulders to keep the slight chill of the shop at bay. As Amity entered the shop, a little bell hanging from the doorframe rang to announce her presence, grabbing the attention of the shop owner.

“Hello! Welcome to Pelle Mia,” the shop owner said welcomingly in English with an obvious German accent, for she knew an English speaking tourist when she saw one. “Anything I can help you find?”

“I was actually interested in that Messenger Bag in the window. The brown one with the black stripe and the color splashes?” Amity asked as in order to get at the bag, the shop owner would need to open up the display and remove the bag for her.

“Certainly!” the shop owner said in that voice friendly older people usually use as she grabbed a key from the counter. Once at the display, she picked up the messenger bag, as only one in the display even remotely matched the provided description, and handed it to Amity.

“This one, right?” the shop owner asked.

“Yes, that’s the one. Thank you!” Amity said as she took the bag and looked it over while the shop owner nodded to her and moved back to the front counter. The bag felt firm yet flexible. Its leather was smooth and was obviously of exceptional quality. She didn’t know much about Messenger Bags, but when she tried the bag on, everything about it simply felt right. It truly was the perfect gift for Luz.

She took the bag over to the front counter and placed it down so the shop owner could calculate the price of the bag on her cash register.

“Just that bag then dear?” the woman asked Amity.

“Yes, just the bag. However, do you perchance have anything I could wrap it with? It’s actually a present for someone.” Amity asked politely as the woman finished calculating the price.

Normally, the shop owner didn’t tend to wrap gifts for people as she didn’t like having to stock up on all of the materials required to wrap one of her and her husband’s products. However, the way the young girl in front of her asked made it clear that this wasn’t just  _ any _ gift, it was a  _ gift _ .

“Sure thing dear, one second,” the shop owner said as she reached under the counter to grab what little wrapping supplies she did keep in the shop for just this sort of occasion. As she wrapped up the bag, she kept giving Amity a look that only older people were capable of giving to members of younger generations when they know the real meaning behind something. Amity felt a little uneasy about the stares, but only in the way one feels when talking about a crush with their grandparents.

Once the shop owner was finished wrapping the bag, Amity paid her what she owed, and made her way out of the store.

“Thank you very much!” Amity said cheerily, happy at having found a gift for Luz.

“Of course dear! I do hope your special someone enjoys their gift,” the shop owner called after Amity.

The “special someone” comment caused Amity to stop in her tracks and blush heavily. However, instead of turning to address the shop owner, she simply hurried out the door back onto the streets of Berlin and made her way back to The Hexus.

With her customer gone, the shop owner settled back into her chair to continue reading. As she picked up her book, a thought crossed her mind.

_ “Ah, to be young and in love.” _

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz was  _ exhausted _ .

She had to wake up before dawn to help start the repairs on the forward LGS and the port forward guide engine if they wanted to finish the repairs on time. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t too extensive and with everyone working together the work was actually finished a little before Captain Lilith’s “soft” deadline. Now, as she made her way down from the forward LGS, having just been dismissed for the night by Eda, the sun was just starting its descent over the horizon.

_ “An entire day to spend time with Amity wasted,”  _ Luz thought as she sighed in disappointment.

That was an odd thought for her to have. Since when did she despise working on the ship’s equipment? Her whole life revolved around her apprenticeship and she normally loved every second of it! But then why was today different?

Eh, food for thought for another time.

Now that her work was done, Luz wanted to spend as much of the rest of the day as she could with Amity.

_ “Oh right, our slumber party!” _ Luz thought excitedly, remembering the idea that she wrote down in her letter to Amity that morning. Now with the prospect of having a slumber party with Amity, there was a little pep in her step despite her exhaustion. It took no time at all for her to make it to the lounge.

“SURPRI-!” Luz began to shout as she entered the lounge but quickly stifled her shouting.

On the couch, Amity was laying down fast asleep. A light blanket was hanging over her loosely, clearly having been forgotten during her slumber. The setting sun bathed her figure in a soft glow. It appeared as if Amity herself was the source of the light streaming through the window and around the room. On the phonograph, a record was nearing its end. The last song that was playing was a beautiful piano solo. Had the solo included well-written lyrics, one could consider it a lullaby. Its soft tones amplified the sight before Luz, making her stop and stare as the sun continued its descent towards the horizon.

As the sun’s golden rays slowly diminished, Luz shook herself out of her stupor and blushed at realizing what she had just spent several minutes doing. She moved over to the phonograph, as the last song of the record had finished and she didn’t want the phonograph to be damaged. 

Once she had put the needle and the record away, she moved to the couch and replaced the blanket over Amity’s figure. It took a lot of focus and control from Luz to keep herself from staring again, and oddly enough, from kissing Amity’s forehead. For some reason, she _really_ wanted to kiss her forehead. After replacing the blanket, she finally noticed the gift sitting on the floor next to the coffee table in front of the couch.

“A present?” Luz whispered to herself in curiosity.

Luz picked up the gift and set it on the coffee table. As she looked it over, she found that she couldn’t find any sort of gift tag informing her who the gift was for.

“For you,” a groggy voice said softly from behind Luz, startling her slightly. She turned to see that Amity had awoken and was wiping her eyes to help them focus on the girl in front of her.

“What is it?” Luz asked after processing what Amity had said, for Luz was momentarily smitten by Amity’s cute and slightly disheveled appearance.

_ “God, what is with me today?” _ Luz thought to herself.

“You have to open it silly,” Amity giggled slightly at Luz’s confusion.

Luz blushed in embarrassment and proceeded to open up the gift. Within, she found a beautiful messenger bag. It was a great size for a messenger bag, not too big but not small either. Its base color was a nice brown and it had a black stripe full of color which she really liked. She immediately tried it on and adjusted the strap. It was a perfect fit with some slight fiddling to the strap.

While Luz began to enjoy her new bag, Amity was a nervous wreck sitting on the couch waiting for Luz to say something. She was wringing her hands together before eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Do you like it?” Amity asked nervously in a soft voice.

Luz turned around and slammed into Amity, who was still sitting on the couch and gave her a big hug.

“I love it! The colors are gorgeous and it fits perfectly. Where’d you get it?” Luz gushed as she loosened her hug.

“I found it in a local shop at one of the market squares that I visited today,” Amity answered with a growing blush as she continued. “I wanted to get you something because I realized that you’ve become more or less my first true friend. Honestly, you aren’t only my first true friend, but my first  _ best _ friend too.”

At this point, Amity’s blush was obvious and she was clearly a little uncomfortable with admitting all of this to Luz. The importance of Amity’s words was not lost on her, and she became slightly teary-eyed as, asides from her mom, she does not recall being this important to anyone before. 

“Oh, Amity,” Luz said softly as she pulled Amity into another hug. This time, however, the hug was much gentler and clearly showed Luz’s appreciation and attempt to comfort Amity and her current vulnerableness.

The two girls took solace in each other until they each pulled back from the hug.

“I’m glad I can be your first true friend, let alone your best friend. But you didn’t have to get me anything,” Luz said as she took off the bag to admire it once more.

“I know I didn’t have to, but I really wanted to. It just means a lot to have a friend like you,” Amity said, looking away slightly, still embarrassed at admitting this to Luz.

Luz smiled at Amity’s embarrassment as once again she thought about how cute Amity is. She put the bag down on the coffee table before turning and pouncing on top of Amity and slamming the two of them back into a lying position on the couch.

“Well, in that case, bestie, it’s time for our sleepover!” Luz shouted and giggled as she kept Amity pinned under her in another hug.

“Ah!” Amity shouted playfully as she too started giggling. “I’ve been captured! I suppose I have no choice but to submit to the sleepover.”

The two giggled as they lay there on the couch. Much quicker than either expected, Luz’s exhaustion from working the entire day caught up with her and she rather quickly fell asleep, still positioned on top of Amity.

Amity blushed furiously as she realized that Luz had fallen asleep. Carefully, as to not wake the girl, she positioned her next to her on the couch and pulled the blanket she had been using over the two of them. Before drifting off to sleep once more herself, she watched Luz sleep as the final rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon, finally plunging the lounge into darkness and sending Amity to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone interested, here is the song that was playing while Luz was watching Amity sleep. It took me a decent amount of time to find the song that gave off the right aesthetic. Hope you enjoy it! [Click Here For Song :)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imGaOIm5HOk)
> 
> Also, here’s the kind of bag that Amity bought. The colors are obviously different but this is the design I was going for: [Click Here For Bag :)](https://www.etsy.com/listing/626174238/pelle-mia-messenger-bag-globe-flower?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pelle+mia&ref=sr_gallery-1-10&organic_search_click=1&cns=1)
> 
> Finally, (gosh it feels like these notes keep getting longer :P) I have completed the outline (more or less) for the story! That 50 chapter count should be the final count. May add or remove a couple depending on how things go from here on out but that 50 should be a solid baseline for the final chapter count. Hope you guys stick around for it all!
> 
> Also Finally, as always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer) for helping me with ideas and [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) for beta reading the chapter.


	9. The Lazy Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity and Luz enjoy a day off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy, everyone! It’s been a while… *scratches back of his neck nervously* Sorry about this having taken so long to finish. After completing the plot line for the story I had like no motivation to write XD Anyways, this is done! Plus, I’m going to start providing weekly updates to my tumblr to keep myself more on track so there aren’t these month-long gaps between chapters. Anywho, I hope you enjoy and keep your eye out for the next chapter!
> 
> P.S. I’m now in an Owl House discord called The Good Witch Society. (Have been for a while :D ) I’m a member of the Project Evergreen group that is working on a collab fic called, you guessed it, Project Evergreen (Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124858) Additionally, I’m one of the “Official Creative Partners'' and thus have my own channel where I provide updates, answer questions, all that stuff. So! If you’d like to join up, feel free to use this link (https://discord.gg/sDGBhXcEcN) and I hope to see you there!

The Hexus flew almost lazily over the German countryside en-route to Madrid. Due to the efforts of the crew in the Engine Room, the ship took off on schedule and would be in Madrid in about 4 days.

Over the horizon, the sun began to rise, indicating the first morning of the 4-day journey. As the rays of early dawn pierced over the horizon, a reflection off of a lone building in the distance caught Amity’s eyes, waking her up.

Amity woke with a slight crick in her neck. In the course of the night, she and Luz had shifted so that they laid on the couch next to each other. Having not quite laid down completely, Amity's neck had been propped up against the armrest.

The payoff, however, was quite worth the pain.

Due to the position that the two found themselves in, Amity had a perfect view of Luz as she cuddled into Amity’s chest. Luz had one of her arms supporting her head while her other hand was scrunching up a portion of the blanket that lay over the two of them. The pre-dawn light coming in from the window of the lounge seemed to accentuate the peacefulness of her expression.

Upon realizing how the two were positioned, Amity went stiff, blushing at their closeness to each other. She attempted to find a way out of the situation that they were in, but quickly realized there was no way to do so without waking Luz.

After panicking for a number of minutes, Amity heard Luz sigh in her sleep, obviously very content and comfortable with the position the two were laying in. Hearing this finally made Amity realize that she should just go with the flow and wait until Luz woke up to change positions. To compromise, she grabbed a throw pillow that had fallen off of the couch and made herself comfortable.

As more time passed, Amity calmed down and took the opportunity to enjoy their position. To keep herself entertained as she was no longer tired, she, unsurprisingly, admired Luz’s sleeping form.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz woke with a sleepy haze over her mind, and instantly sighed at the warmth that she found herself experiencing.

“ _Just like Mamí,”_ Luz thought wistfully as she let herself enjoy the warmth. She felt someone move next to her, however as she didn’t want to disturb her peace, not to mention the fact she wasn’t awake enough yet to do anything about it, she let them adjust and continued enjoying the warmth.

It took Luz another 20 minutes before she finally roused herself enough to be a productive human being. Thankfully, on days she was working, she had Viney to help her wake up on time for duty.

Once she finished waking up, she stirred and figured out who it was next to her that had moved when she first woke up.

_“That’s right, Amity and I had a sleepover!”_ she thought as she looked up to find Amity propped up on a throw pillow and staring at her.

_“I wonder how long she’s been staring at me?”_ Luz wondered as a smirk appeared on her face. She knew just the right way to mess with Amity.

“Like what you see?” Luz said with a flirtatious slur, clearly not having spent even a second considering if messing with Amity this early in the morning was the smart thing to do or not.

“Definitely,” Amity answered, also having been said clearly without a second thought.

Well... That was unexpected.

Once the two girls processed what had just happened, they each began to blush profusely and felt awkward in their current seating arrangement. As a result of a surprise unspoken agreement, both girls sat up and put some distance between themselves on the couch. However, neither left the comfort of the blanket they shared as the room was rather cool at the moment.

An awkward air settled around the two as neither knew what they should do to resolve their growing embarrassment. Both had the same warring thoughts as they tried to come to terms with their current situation; “ _Why did I do that? Why did I blush that hard?? What do I do now!?”_

Eventually, Luz grew the courage to attempt to alleviate the awkwardness.

“Amity,” Luz said abruptly as she turned to face the girl sitting next to her.

“Y... Yes?” Amity stuttered, turning part of the way to face Luz, noticeably avoiding her eyes.

“I’m sorry for doing that, I didn’t mean to...” Luz began, however, was interrupted by a growling from her stomach. She attempted to continue her apology, but her stomach would not be ignored. She had missed dinner the night before, after all.

“So, uh, are you hungry?” Luz asked as she chuckled and offered an embarrassed smile. It wasn’t the apology she had wanted to offer, but there was a better chance it would alleviate the awkwardness by changing the subject.

Amity chuckled slightly and hummed her agreement as she nodded in response. Luz took this as a good sign and began to hype herself up. What was she doing being awkward? This was her new best friend sitting next to her! And, darnit, this was probably Amity’s first sleepover. She had to make her best friend’s first sleepover the best one ever!

“Awesome! I’ll go get us some food then,” Luz said as she dramatically flung the blanket off of her and jumped up while striking a dramatic pose. “For I am the great Food-ini! Conjurer of Snacks and Deliciousness!”

Amity laughed at Luz’s renewed antics, grateful that her friend was able to alleviate the tension. “Oh great Food-ini,” Amity said dramatically, following in Luz’s antics, “I have been derived from deliciousness for so long! I fear that I may soon wither away,” Amity finished, laying ceremoniously back on the couch and laying her hand over her head dramatically.

“Worry not, fair maiden, for you must simply shield your eyes and upon the completion of my ritual, the deliciousness you so desperately crave will be within your grasp,” Luz said as she got down on one knee in front of the couch while bowing her head. “Psst, what do you want for breakfast?” she then asked in a whisper while leaning over towards Amity and covering one side of her mouth with her hand.

“I’d love some Blueberry Pancakes and some Cinnamon-Apple Tea,” Amity responded, removing her hand from her head and placed her hand on one side of her mouth as well. “And if they have any left, grab a Chocolate Muffin.”

“Okay, Pancakes, Tea, and a Muffin,” Luz said, repeating it a couple times to ensure that she wouldn’t forget the order. “Now, shield your eyes and upon my ritual’s completion, I shall provide your desired deliciousness!”

“My Hero~!” Amity cooed dramatically as she placed her hand over her eyes. She heard a scrambling of feet in front of her and eventually heard the door to the lounge open and close, signaling that “The Great Food-ini” had begun her “ritual.” Amity smiled and chuckled at the ridiculousness of what played out as she sat up on the couch and removed her hand from her face again. While it was goofy and stupid, she had to admit…

She was having fun.

To keep herself busy, Amity decided she would clean up the lounge a little bit to get it ready for their meal. She started by putting on a record she could hum to and keep her mind occupied. Then, she began to fix the couch cushions and get them fluffed up after having been laid on all night. Lastly, she folded up the blanket they had used to prepare it in case they got cold in the small room once more. She did, however, freeze for a moment as she caught a small whiff of the blanket as she was folding it.

_“It smells like Luz,”_ she thought to herself.

After a moment of intense blushing, and one additional sniff, she finished setting the blanket aside and resumed her position on the couch, awkwardly humming in order to distract herself and waiting patiently for Luz’s return with their breakfast.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz skipped merrily on her way to the kitchens, satisfied with herself at having alleviated the awkward tension that had settled between her and Amity back in the Lounge.

_“I need to be more careful,”_ Luz chastised herself, but only for a moment as not to ruin her mood, “ _I can’t just say whatever I want like that, obviously.”_

As she rounded the corner to the entrance of the kitchens, she almost crashed right into Gus if it wasn’t for the fact that her foot caught a bump in the decking, causing her to trip and fall face first in typical Luz fashion.

“Goodness, Luz! You alright?” Gus asked as he moved to help Luz up.

“Oh you know me, fit as a fiddle!” Luz responded as she accepted Gus’ help, clearly used to tripping and falling face-first.

Gus shook his head in amusement at Luz’s antics, knowing it would be useless to chastise her for the upteenth time about skipping through the passageways. He did just run into her doing exactly that after all.

“So, what are you up to?” Gus asked as he and Luz entered the Kitchen.

“I’m picking up breakfast for me and Amity,” Luz responded while grabbing a dining tray as the two approached the array of food laid out along the edges of the kitchen to be either picked up by dinning room wait staff or picked off by crew like her and Gus.

“I still can’t believe how nice Amity is,” Gus commented as he scooped a generous portion of eggs onto his plate.

“I know right? I was honestly a little skeptical of her until she helped out Willow the other day,” Luz said as she finished adding a plate of eggs and bacon to her tray and moving on to get Amity her pancakes.

“Well, you certainly didn’t seem skeptical,” Gus commented as the two made their way, plates and tray now full of food, over to the drink counter.

“What do you mean?” Luz asked skeptically as she began to make Amity her tea.

“Up until your date with her in London, you guys had basically never talked to each other. It was a little weird how defensive you were of her considering neither of you had interacted enough to form any opinions yet,” Gus stated as he made a glass of orange juice for himself.

Luz, caught off guard by the reminder of her odd defense of Amity’s valor, blushed as Gus continued rattling off why it was strange Amity and Luz got along so well so early.

“First of all, it was not a date,” Luz stated matter-of-factly, “and second, I’m just a good judge of character, that’s all. There is no other reason why I defended her until we found out she’s a nice girl. Nope! None.”

Upon finishing her rant, Luz left the Kitchen to head back to the Lounge where Amity was without waiting for a response. In her exasperation, she didn’t notice Willow entering the kitchen and meeting up with Gus.

“What was that all about?” Willow asked as she reached Gus, the two of them watching Luz leave.

“You were right. She’s got it bad,” Gus said, handing Willow the other glass of orange juice he had made, for while Willow had already eaten breakfast, she always enjoyed a sort of “breakfast break” with her friends.

“Let me guess, Amity?” Willow asked, accepting the glass of juice.

“Amity,” Gus said affirmatively, nodding his head knowingly.  
  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amity was beginning to nod off again from the growing warmth of the Lounge as the sun continued to rise over the horizon. While she wasn’t necessarily tired, she hadn’t exactly slept well either due to the position she had found herself in. It didn’t help that she had put on a record of soft piano music to help pass the time until Luz returned either.

She would have taken a quick nap, had it not been for the door being dramatically kicked open.

“The great Food-ini has completed the ritual and has brought the requested deliciousness!” Luz more-or-less shouted as she entered the room.

Amity, having been caught off guard by Luz’s sudden arrival, jumped in her seat and let out a small squeal. This squeal, to those who recognized the sound, would have noticed that it was _very_ similar to that of a kitten attempting to meow.

Luz recognized the sound.

Silence over took the lounge as Amity began to blush from her embarrassment, and Luz’s eyes began to widen in awe. Within moments, Luz had placed the tray of food on the coffee table and was sitting on the couch holding Amity’s hands in her own.

“Oh my god, Amity, that was adorable!” Luz said excitedly as she stared at Amity with wide eyes filled with awe.

“Oh, it’s not, I- you think it’s adorable?” Amity asked, taken aback by the reaction that Luz was having. Most people, of the rare few that have heard her squeal, consider it rather childish and often pity her for having such an embarrassing squeal.

“Of course! I wish I had a cute scream like that,” Luz answered as she continued to stare wide eyed with adoration.

“Well then, thanks, Luz,” Amity said as she gave a small smile and let her embarrassment fade.

Luz offered a short hum before continuing to smile and stare adoringly at Amity. The two sat like this for a decent amount of time, simply enjoying each other’s presence, before Luz’s stomach rumbled again.

“Oh, that’s right! The deliciousness has arrived!” Luz announced again as she turned to the tray of food that sat on the coffee table, waiting to be eaten.

The two grabbed their respective plates off of the tray and began to enjoy their breakfast as they enjoyed each other’s company and listened to the piano music that Amity had put on on the phonograph. While they sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch, it wasn’t close enough to be constantly brushing their shoulders against each other. When they reached out to their plate and weren’t careful, which they often weren’t, their shoulders brushed. However, unlike during their tour of the ship, it didn’t cause any sort of reaction from them. The two merely ate in a calm, comfortable silence.

“When do you have to get to work?” Amity eventually asked towards the end of their meal being the first to break the calming silence that had settled between the two of them.

“Oh I don’t have to work today. Eda, the Head Engineer, gave us Apprentices the day off today since we did so much work yesterday. So, we can hang out here all day!” Luz said cheerily. However, through her cheeriness, she had failed to stifle a yawn, displaying just how tired she was after having spent the entirety of the previous day fixing the ship even after a full night’s rest.

Amity, choosing to be considerate of her best friend’s current state, thought about what they should do that would keep them together yet allow them to keep the comfortable atmosphere that had descended around them.

_“Should we play some chess?”_ Amity thought before remembering what happened the last time they played chess. _“No, much too lively…”_

_“Singing?”_ she thought as she brought a hand to her chin almost unconsciously, causing Luz to tilt her head in confusion. _“No, she’s much too loud for that, at least for today…”_

“Well in that case, how about we just read some books on the couch together?” Amity suggested, continuing to explain her proposal before Luz could interrupt. “That way if you fall asleep it’s not really interrupting anything, but then we can still spend the day together! Does that sound good?”

“That sounds perfect! I’ll go get us a book,” Luz said without a moment's hesitation because honestly, she would love to simply sleep the day away. So, if she can do that and still hang out with Amity, score one for Luz!

As Luz headed to the bookshelves, she also picked up their now empty breakfast plates, placed them back on the tray, and brought the tray over to a small table by the door so they would remember to take them back to the Kitchen later. Then, she looked around for a book.

While Luz picked out a book, Amity pulled out the blanket that she had set aside. She settled onto the couch at around its middle, leaving space for Luz to lay next to her, and readied the blanket to cover the two of them. Her boldness at suggesting such a position caused her to blush slightly, but she shook it away as she reasoned that this is just what friends do. She may not have done it herself, but she’s read enough books to know that it's fairly common place for friends to do stuff like this.

Just as Amity finished getting ready, Luz returned and handed Amity the book she chose. As Amity examined the book, Luz settled in next to her, adjusting the blanket to ensure it covered both of them equally and got comfortable leaning into Amity’s shoulder.

“Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu huh? I didn’t take you for a reader of classical books Luz,” Amity commented as the two finished settling in onto the couch.

“What can I say?” Luz said with a half shrug as to not disturb their positions on the couch, “my Mamí read it to me when I was little, so it’s always been one of my favorites.”

“Well in that case, Chapter One, An Early Fright. In Styria, we, though by no means…” Amity began reading the book as the two took comfort in the other’s presence next to them. It wasn’t long until Luz eventually fell asleep next to Amity on the couch, however Amity kept reading if only to give herself something to do other than stare at the sleeping figure beside her.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Occasionally Luz would wake up and listen to whatever book was being read at the moment, but inevitably fell back asleep, having been soothed by Amity’s voice. In the early to mid afternoon, the two took a break from reading to go enjoy a late lunch in the Main Dining Hall, enjoying the luxuries the ship had to offer.

Upon their return to the lounge, they continued their reading until eventually both girls once more fell asleep for the evening, still leaning against each other as they shared a blanket. As the moon rose over the horizon, it’s gentle glow illuminated their faces, and had anyone else been in the room, they would have noticed the soft smiles and peaceful expressions that each girl wore as they slept in the company of their best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, shout out to [@amityadmirer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/amityadmirer)for helping me with ideas and [@AnimeWolf38](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeWolf38/pseuds/AnimeWolf38) for beta reading the chapter.


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